THE WHITEFISH PRODUCTION OF THE GREAT LAKES. 631 
WORK OF THE HATCHERIES. 
But the whitefish, on account of being such an excellent food fish, is more 
sought after than many others and is taken by every device that man has 
been able to invent and in the greatest numbers possible on all occasions, so 
that the natural losses are many times multiplied by this take of fish which 
may justly be termed ‘artificial’ losses. If this artificial loss is continued, 
then in order that the loss shall not greatly overbalance the natural increase 
there must of necessity be introduced an artificial increase. Happily this 
can be accomplished, in fact is being accomplished, in several places by the aid 
of the hatcheries. The method employed is to have men go out with the 
commercial fishermen when they raise their nets and collect the eggs from the 
ripe fish. ‘This is done by expelling the eggs into a common milk pan in as 
dry a state as possible, after which they are immediately fertilized by using 
the milt of the ripe male fish. They are then carefully washed, brought to the 
station and placed in the hatching jars, where they remain until hatched. 
In addition to this method of saving the eggs we also pen several thousand 
fish each year. To do this a net is hung on the back of that part of the pound 
net called the crib, and when the fish commence coming on the grounds, before 
they are ripe enough to spawn, the fishermen as they raise their nets take out 
the unripe fish and place them in these nets on the back of the crib. The 
station tug, which is provided with large tanks through which a stream of water 
is constantly pumped, visits these nets and takes the fish out, transferring them 
to the tanks and conveying them to the station, where they are then transferred 
to the pens. Here they are held until they ripen, when the eggs are secured; 
and the fish after a few days, when they have regained their normal condition, 
are returned to the fishermen from whom they were obtained and are sent 
to market. It is perhaps well to say in this connection that spawning the 
fish in this manner in no way injures them for food—in fact these fish that are 
spawned and then held a few days before being put on the market are in much 
better condition for consumption than if they had been marketed when first 
caught. Moreover, the whitefish, unlike many others, is in the best condition 
for food at spawning time, for the reason that it is very fat and the flesh is 
juicy, sweet, and, the water temperature at this time being low, firm and 
flaky, while earlier in the season when the water is yet warm the flesh is much 
softer and not of as fine a flavor. 
Not to digress further, however, we will continue by saying that from the 
fish collected and held in pens as described above, at one point alone last season 
over 47,000,000 eggs of the very best quality were secured. In other instances, 
where the fishermen operate on a small scale and small boats are used for the 
purpose, arrangements are made whereby the fisherman collects the eggs himself 
