198 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



then transferred to the spawn-kettle containing clean water and the 

 poor or dead eggs are thrown away. 



All the eggs obtained on a given vessel are kept in the kettle until 

 the receiving-house on shore is reached, the water on the eggs being- 

 changed at intervals during the passage in; and to keep the tempera- 

 ture uniform, the eggs -are shifted from one part of the vessel to 

 another, according to conditions. Sometimes, when the sea is very 

 chopi)y or rough, the pail can not safely be used, as the eggs will spill 

 out, and they are then stripped directly in the spawn-kettle and cleaned 

 as well as possible. 



It was formerly the practice to take cod eggs in a small quantity of 

 water, but during the season of 1896-97 it was determined to test the 

 relative efficacy of the so-called wet and dry methods of fertilization. 

 Some of the spawn-takers were instructed to employ the dry method 

 and others the wet method. The experiments show that when eggs 

 were taken by the dry method a much larger percentage was fertilized 

 than when taken in water. Eggs from fish caught on trawl lines inva- 

 riably yield a larger percentage of fry than those from fish caught in 

 nets, although fine eggs are frequently obtained from net fish. The 

 explanation seems to be that fish caught in nets soon become entangled 

 and are either drowned, or nearly so, shortly after being meshedj they 

 struggle a great deal more than fish on trawls and the greater part of 

 them are dead when taken into the boats, many of them being scaled, 

 which indicates severe exertion in trying to escape. Trawl fish, on the 

 other hand, are almost always alive and active when taken from the 

 water, and very few fish without scales are found unless the gear has 

 been out a long time or has been set during a heavy storm, when, of 

 course, many of the fish will be dead. 



Better results are obtained from eggs taken when the weather is 

 fairly cold than when it is warm, as when the temperature is high it is 

 difficult for spawn-takers to keep the water containing the eggs at a 

 safe temperature, and before the egg house on shore is reached there is 

 almost always a heavy loss. When the weather is too cold for eggs to 

 be kept on the vessel's deck the spawn-takers put them below the deck, 

 where the temperature will be suitable. 



Many difficulties and much exposure are encountered by the men 

 who collect cod eggs on the fishing vessels, and during severely cold 

 and windy weather, when the deck is covered with ice and the fish 

 freeze stiff in the dories before they reach the vessel, it is practically 

 impossible to get good eggs. During boisterous weather, when the 

 fleet succeeds in hauling the gear only once or twice a week, the greater 

 part of the catch is generally dead when taken. A spawn-taker often 

 secures a good lot of eggs and can find no ripe milt fish, but in this 

 event he will, if the weather permits, visit the nearest vessel in quest 

 of milt. Sometimes there is a school of milt fish in the bay and very 

 few female fish, and a vessel may catch several thousand pounds of cod 

 day after day without finding ripe spawn in any of them, while another 



