REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 65 



to remoyo all traces of the unusually heavy coating of ice on the pike- 

 porch spawning grounds, and the fishermen were able to install their 

 nets earlier than for several years past. Rough weather prevailed 

 during the first few days of April, however, making it impossible to 

 fish mitil the 7th, when a lot of eggs came in from the Port Clinton 

 field. From that time on daily collections were received until the 

 close of tlie spawning season on May 6. The weather conditions 

 during this period were generally favorable, and the results of the 

 work were satisfactory, 611,250,000 eggs being secured, or about 

 20,000,000 in excess of any season's collections on this lake since 

 the spring of 1911. Green eggs to the number of 166,200,000 were 

 shipped on application, leaving 445,000,000 to be laid down in the 

 Put in Bay hatchery. After the development of the eye spots 

 52,000,000 additional eggs were utilized in filling assignments and 

 from the remaining stock 115,500,000 vigorous fry were hatched, 

 nearly all of which were returned to Lake Erie. 



Fish-cultural work at Cape Vincent opened October 18 with the 

 receipt of small lots of lake-trout eggs from Galloo and Stony Islands, 

 in New York waters, and from the commercial fislieries near Pigeon 

 Island, Ontario. The collections were interfered with by prevaihng 

 high winds, and, as a consequence, only 762,000 eggs were secured 

 from the entire Lake Ontario field. To' make up for the shortage in 

 lake-trout eggs for this hatchery, 9,400,000 green and 1,750,000 eyed 

 eggs were forwarded from Micliigan. From this stock 6,315,000 fry 

 were hatched which, with the exception of 179,000 furnished to New 

 York applicants for stockdng interior waters, were all liberated in 

 suitable parts of Lake Ontario. 



During the fall of 1916 arrangements were made by the superin- 

 tendent of Cape Vincent station to cooperate in whitefish propaga- 

 tion with the New York Conservation Commission at Old Fort and 

 Upper Saranac, N. Y., and to collect independently from commercial 

 fisheries in the vicinity of tlie station, at Three Mile Bay and Chau- 

 mont Bay, N. Y. ; also on the Canadian side of Lake Ontario around 

 South Bay. This latter field, which had never before been canvassed 

 by the Bureau, proved fairly productive, yielding 12,550,000 eggs, 

 and had a suitable boat been available it is believed the collection 

 there would have been several times larger. Under existing condi- 

 tions the ep:gs had to be hauled many miles overland, then shipped 

 by rail to Kingston, Canada, and from there to the hatchery by boat, 

 notwithstanding the fact that the fishery is only 20 to 25 miles dis- 

 tant from Cape Vincent. The Bureau's share of eggs secured as a 

 result of cooperative work with the State amounted to 12,048,000, 

 and 4,280,000 were obtained from commercial fishermen in New York 

 watei-s, bringing the total collections to 28,878,000, or sufficient for 

 stocking the natchery without resorting as in past years to the trans- 

 fer of eggs from outside stations of the Bureau. Fair success was 

 attained in hatching these eggs, and in making the distribution the 

 19,550,000 fry produced were equitably divided between the spawn- 

 ing grounds in Lake Ontario and the interior waters of New York. 



In the course of the whitefish spawning season, which was coinci- 

 dent with that of the Lake herring, extending from November 10 to 

 December 5, eggs of the latter species to the number of 115,575,000 

 were collected and hatched, yielding 82,550,000 fry for return to the 



