556 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [32] 



assertions by facts or written statements made from actual observations, 

 and without keeping books they cannot possibly do this, the measures 

 introduced for protecting and increasing the food-fish will be much less 

 certain of a favorable result, and it is probable that more harm than 

 good will be done. 



The usefulness of putting down observations is, however, by no means 

 exhausted by what has been said. On the contrary, it is to be expected 

 that here and there a fisherman will show more talent for making such 

 observations than he could hitherto display, or than he knew himself. 

 If any one can be found who will enter his observations in a book and 

 preserve them for future times, so that a naturalist, in looking over the 

 book, can extract from it all the more important observations, the 

 observer will take an increasing interest in fish and their life, and will 

 put down everything that he deems important. 



With the means at their command, fishermen can make many impor- 

 tant observations, and do it much easier than scientific investigators. 

 As has been said before, it is extremely difficult to develop the eggs of 

 salt-water fish in aquaria, and at best we do not know whether the young 

 fish leave the eggs just as quick or just as slow in the aquaria as in the 

 open sea. The fisherman can either place artificially impregnated eggs 

 in suitable places on the coast and observe how soon the young fish are 

 hatched, or he can make observations on the spawn which has been laid 

 and impregnated in a natural manner. This is, however, somewhat dif- 

 ficult, because it is not always easy to find the spawn. Artificial im- 

 pregnation is on the whole so easy a process that by it our knowledge of 

 the fish-eggs and their development will probably be increased most 

 rapidly. All that is required is to procure a live milter containing ma- 

 ture milt (that is, a fish from which the milt flows), and a live spawner 

 containing mature spawn (a fish from which the spawn flows). Some 

 eggs, about 100 to 1,000, are then allowed to flow into a flat empty ves- 

 sel, which has just been washed with salt water. Upon these eggs a 

 few drops of the milt are squeezed from the live milter, they are stirred 

 two or three times with the hand, and sea water is added. The vessel 

 must not be warmer or colder than the water which is added. The eggs 

 thereupon become impregnated and begin to develop. If the vessel is 

 covered with a piece of gauze, so the eggs cannot be destroyed by fish 

 and other marine animals, and placed in the sea in some suitable loca- 

 tion, the eggs will develop just as well as if they had been laid by the 

 fish. By keeping a close watch over the vessel, and by occasionally 

 taking out a few eggs and examining them at home, it will be possible 

 to obtain exact data regarding the gradual development of the fish till 

 the time of hatching, and regarding the nature and mode of life of the 

 young fry. But few, if any, such observations have been made; but, to 

 judge from the experience of the piscicultural establishments, the result 

 of such observations, if properly made, can scarcely be doubted, although 

 a few experiments may probably prove failures. 

 The development of the egg can easily be observed with the naked 



