PROPAGATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF SHAD. 84S 



tempcrutuie rose above 80°. By covering tlie tops of the buckets by- 

 caps of wire gauze, they could bo immersed to any required distance 

 towards the bottom, where even the slight difference of heat might bo 

 enough to save the eggs. The apparatus, which was placed upon a 

 large scow 59 feet long and 19 feet wide, consists of a shafting along 

 the center of the scow upon which at intervals are placed irregularly 

 formed cams which have a long and a short side. This is accomplished 

 by making the outline of the cams two intersecting cycloid curves, which 

 produces upon the lever following its circumference a quick fall and slow 

 rise at the extreme end. A steam-engine is the motive power revolving 

 the shafting aud cams. To the ends of the levers are suspended cylin- 

 ders of sheet-iron, from 1.^ to 2 feet in diameter having a wire-cloth bot- 

 tom, aud within these cylinders the eggs are placed. The rise and fall in 

 the water does not exceed 5 inches. A slow revolution of the shafting 

 produces all the agitation in the water essential to the welfare of the 

 eggs, a more rapid motion having a tendency to draw the eggs hard 

 against the wire cloth. The slow rise and quick fall of the cylinders 

 also prevents the eggs from this injury, as the effect is to throw the 

 eggs high up as the bucket goes down, and as it comes slowly up they 

 fall gently to the wire-cloth bottom. 



B.— STATION Oi^ THE CONNECTICUT EIVER AT SOUTH 

 HADLEY FALLS, MASSACHUSETTS. 



The work on the Susquehanna Eiver closed on the 13th of June, and 

 on the 26th of the month I commenced operations at South Hadley Falls, 

 Massachusetts. We had shipped our stock of furniture in a freight car, 

 and obtained a house in the vicinity of the fishery for the accommoda- 

 tion of the party ; this proved to be very much more convenient in 

 every way than a residence at the hotel over a mile from the fishery, as 

 formerly. Seines and fishermen were at once engaged aud began fish- 

 ing, and the first eggs were taken on the night of the 2Gth. From that 

 time until the fourth of August, eggs were taken every night, the 

 entire number amounting to 3,101,000. 



An immense raft of logs which was floated down the river over the 

 spawning ground was a great detriment to our work, as, although the 

 men in charge of the rafts were very obliging, in attempting to keep the 

 logs as much as possible out of our way, still it proved to be a consider- 

 able interference with the fishing and the general success of our work. 



Both at Havre de Grace and South Hadley Falls, Mr. H. J. Rice, of 

 the Johns Hopkins University, of Baltimore, was with us, studying, by 

 aid of the microscope, the embryological development of the shad. A 

 portion of his conclusions having been published in the Maryland Re- 

 port of Commissioner of Fisheries for the year 1877. Mr. Charles G. 

 Atkins, of Bucksport, Me., also remained with us at South Hadley Falls 

 during the season, making a large number of interesting and important 

 experiments with reference to the impregnation of the eggs, and the 

 care of the eggs and young fishes while in the hatching- boxes. 



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