124 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



to be shipped a short distance — 25 to 50 miles — it is not necessary to 

 cover them with moss. 



The trays used at the station are 16 inches square, outside, and are 

 made of white pine f by 1 inch, mortised together at the corners with 

 the widest side of the strip horizontal. On the bottom of these frames 

 heavy canton flannel is tacked, so that the nap will come next to the 

 eggs when in use. The cloth should be stretched very taut, otherwise 

 it will sag on being wet and dried. The tacks are put 2^ to 3 inches 

 apart, so that in a year or so it can be retacked between the ones first 

 driven to take up the slack. The trays are made sqnare, as they then 

 go into the cases either way and time is saved in packing; square 

 cases are also more convenient in storing and in handling generally. 

 Such a tray will hold 50,000 eggs. 



If the eggs have to be retained for several days in the field, they are 

 sometimes kept in floating-boxes adapted for this purpose. (See descrip- 

 tion of this box on p. 107.) Bat unless the conditions are very favor- 

 able it is far better to place the eggs on trays, sprinkling them lightly 

 once in two or three days. 



When taken from the kegs and trays at the hatchery the eggs are 

 passed through a screen (with meshes sufficiently large to permit the 

 passage of a single egg) in order to remove scales and other foreign 

 substances that may be i)resent. The screen is floated in a washtub 

 partly filled with water, the wire netting being well submerged. 



For handling eggs and fry wooden kegs are by some preferred to 

 tin cans, as they do not subject the eggs and fry to sudden changes 

 of temperature, their contents are easily examined, and the water is 

 more readily i^oured oft' without danger of losing eggs. The kegs are 

 much lighter, only cost a third as much as cans, and last longer. For 

 shipping in wagons or by rail, however, tin cans with covers are indis- 

 pensable. Kegs should be made of white pine, painted outside but 

 not within, and hold about 15 gallons each, and should be provided with 

 iron drop handles. 



PENNING WILD FISH. 



The uncertainty of the seasons and the liability of failure to obtain 

 spawning fish owing to severe storms which occur in November, make 

 it desirable, wherever practicable, to capture fish in favorable weather 

 and place them in pens until ripe. After the fish are driven off their 

 spawning-grounds by severe storms, they do not return in large numbers 

 during the spawning season, and the only way to insure a satisfactory 

 supj)ly of eggs is by penning the fish. 



Nets have been tried for penning, but they do not aflbrd sufficient 

 facilities for sorting the fish of various degrees of ripeness and the fish 

 have to be handled too much, thus encouraging fungus growths on them 

 and causing many to abort their eggs. Penning is best done in crates 

 made of boards with openings sufficiently large to admit the free inter, 

 change of water. The pens are generally made about 16 feet long, 3 or 



