American Fisheries Society. 95 



a net of fish tliat we wanted to strip from, than any landsman I 

 conkl ever train; they will endure harder work without fatigue, 

 do not sufYer, and once get them interested will strip with more 

 intelligence and care than any man I could ever train ; they make 

 the boss strippers; no man can successfully strip a large trout 

 when his teeth are chattering, and his entire body chill and 

 nund^ed with cold," 



An employee of a hatching station who has secured millions 

 of eggs has said: "I always prefer a fisherman for the work, 

 where they take pride in it as some do; they have always secured 

 more eggs than I could myself, because of their rugged physiqde 

 and physical endurance. I have had the best "results from eggs 

 thus stripped by men who have followed the fishing business for 

 years, and know that some of them have stripped eggs from the 

 Lake trout for the past ten years, when ripe fish are found in 

 their nets." 



This idea has become engrafted on the minutes of the asso- 

 ciation I represent, that its sentiments are voiced m suggestions 

 to the legislature recommending, "That every steam vessel or tug 

 engaged in fishing with nets should have provided a bucket that 

 should be kept ready for use, and for this purpose alone; so that 

 when lake trout are caught when ripe, and the eggs are exuding 

 from the vent, that such fish should be stripped, and that such 

 stripped eggs should be milted with the first ripe fish caught, 

 and the bucket then set aside in a safe place to allow the eggs to 

 become fertilized. 



To better insure such fertilization without possibility of endan- 

 gering the eggs by the introduction of deletrious matter, a piece 

 of rope made like a swal) (like sample furnished) was wetted and 

 soaked, then used to stir the eggs, thus permitting the thorough 

 circulation of the fluid amongst the eggs without putting dirty 

 hands into the bucket. 



This has been done for years, and singular though the process 

 may be, yet the eggs deposited in the grounds the fishermen knew 

 of, have produced the very cream of lake trout in the last few 

 years; these fishermen are not so egotistical as to assert that this 

 is the best way to secure the production of fry, but they do claim 

 that even twenty per cent, gained is better than to throw all the 

 ripening eggs into the water, and thus destroy all possibilities of 

 a return of nature's provisions; the experiment has proved worth 

 a trial. Even the busiest of the men \YOuld watch with interest 

 the changing color of the eggs, the firnmess and stiffening of the 

 eggs after the thorough commingling of the life-giving proper- 



