496 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



With the exception of a comparatively few brook and rainbow 

 trout, which are held until they have attained the fino^erling, or year- 

 ling stage, each species is distributed as soon as the fish have attained 

 a suitable size for shipment; and after a season's supply has been 

 exhausted no more are available for a year. In the Eastern States^ 

 trout are distributed between March and the last of June, while in 

 the Rocky Mountain States the distribution usually begins in July 

 and extends to about October 1. 



The basses, bream, and other pondfishes are distributed within 

 from one week to several months after they are hatched, the last 

 lots of bass shipped usually ranging from 4 to 6 inches in length, 

 Mobile the sunfish range from 2 to 4 inches long. Such commercial 

 species as the whitefish, cod, and pike perch, which are hatched in 

 great numbers, are necessarily distributed as fry. 



Immediate!}^ upon the receipt of a request, the applicant is notified 

 concerning the species assigned him and as to the approximate date 

 when the fish can be delivered. Just prior to the shipment a second 

 notice is sent, usually by wire, stating the exact time the fish will 

 arrive at the railroad station named in the application. On account 

 of the comparatively heavy cost of shipping fish to distant points, 

 such trips are postponed until a sufficient number of applications 

 from a given section have accumulated to warrant the expense of 

 making a shipment. 



In making a distribution, the fish are usually sent out in the 

 bureau's fisheries cars which are stationed at some central railroad 

 point in a given section, while deliveries by messengers are made to 

 applicants living at some distance off the main line. The messengers 

 travel in the baggage cars of regular passenger trains and deliver 

 the fish at destination as the train makes its regular stops. Delivery 

 is made to the applicant's railroad station without expense to him,, 

 but he is required to furnish containers for transporting the fish to 

 the waters to be stocked. The bureau's cans can not be lent for 

 this purpose, since the cars and messengers must proceed at once to 

 other points. 



DISTRIBUTION OF FISHES OF INTERIOR WATERS 



CAR NO. 3 



[E. R. WiUMYER, Captain] 



The distribution of warm-water fishes from the La Crosse (Wis.) 

 substation was taken up on July 12, and between that time and the 

 close of the Mississippi River operations on the 4th of December, 

 266,185 fingerling fish were delivered to applicants, the work involving 

 both car trips and messenger shipments and extending into the States 

 of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Ohio, Illinois, North Dakota, and 

 South Dakota. Early in January the car was placed in the shops of 

 the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Co. at Milwaukee, Wis., 

 and while undergoing annual repairs an electrically driven air com- 

 pressor was installed. 



For the purpose of relieving overcrowded conditions in the La 

 Crosse hatchery during the latter part of March, the car transferred 

 153,000 rainbow trout from La Crosse to Lynxville, Wis. On April 

 1 it carried a load of trout from La Crosse to Homer, Minn., and after 



