[17] OPERATIONS AT THE NORTHVILLE HATCHERY. 1053 



May 16 — Deposited by James R. Bull, of Saint Louis, 



Mo., iu Islaud Lake, Monroe County, Illinois 3. 000 



May 29 — Deposited in Oakland County, Michigan, in 

 Deer Lake, through which flows the Clinton River, 

 tributary to Lake Saint Clair 10, 000 



June 1 — Deposited in Oakland County, Michigan, in 

 Straits Lake, through which flows the Huron River, 

 tributary to Detroit River , . 10, 000 



June 3 — Deposited in Wayne County, Michigan, in 



northeastern branch of river Rouge 8, 000 



71, 500 



From eight adult California trout, five of which are females, all 

 brought from California four years ago and since confined in the ponds 

 here, we took 5,150 eggs between the 13th and the 29th of March, which 

 hatched on an average in 38 days. The loss on eggs was 850; and on 

 April 20, 1,200 eggs were shipped to F. Mather for reshipment to Herr 

 von Behr, Germany. The 3,100 fish that hatched were deposited May 

 16, by James R. Bull, of Saint Louis, Mo., in Murdoch Lake, Monroe 

 County, Illinois. 



Kext spring we expect to take at least 100,000 eggs from the stock of 

 California trout now on hand, that will then make their debut as 

 spawners. About half of these fish are the progeny of the eight adult 

 fish above mentioned. They were two years old last spring, an age at 

 which a majority of our brook trout have always spawned, although a 

 portion of them, perhaps one-fifth, do not until three years old. We 

 had therefore anticipated getting a nice supply of eggs from them, but 

 failed to find a single mature spawner. Several females were opened 

 at various times through the winter, with tlie result of finding only mi- 

 nute ova to mature a year later; still, we felt confident that a few of 

 them at least would spawn, thinking we had missed the right ones; all 

 the more so, too, from the fact that ripe males were numerous even 

 three or four months in advance of the regular spawning season ; in 

 fact, the eggs taken from the adult California trout were mostly im- 

 pregnated with milt from the two-j^ear-olds. Failure to obtain a single 

 egg from these fish, of which there are at least four or five hundred fe- 

 males, leaves little room to doubt the conclusion that the iridea seldom, 

 if ever, spawn when two years old, at least where they are confined in 

 ponds from infancy. 



HATCHING AND DISTRIBUTION OF EGGS OF SCHOODIC SALMON. 



On the 28th of February, Mr. Charles G. Atkins shipped from Grand 

 Lake Stream, Maine, for the Northville hatchery, a case of 46,500 eggs 

 of Schoodic or land-locked salmon. They arrived March 4, and oi)ened 

 up in excellent condition, only 45 dead eggs being observed ou unpack- 

 ing. Previous to hatching, 1,065 more were i^icked away, showing a 

 total loss of 1,110 eggs after arrival. 



