46 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



bulk of them being returned to the spawning grounds in Lake 

 Superior. 



Incidental to experimental sturgeon work conducted from this 

 station, eggs were taken from pike perch caught in the nets and, 

 in the absence of the usual facilities, were developed on fine wire 

 trays placed in a cove at the mouth of the Rainy River. The losses 

 were greater than they would have been had the customary hatching 

 apparatus been available, and from the 1,900,000 eggs secured only 

 240,000 strong healthy fry were hatched and Uberated. 



Encouraged by the comparative abundance of whitefish m the 

 vicinity of the Cape Vincent station, on T^ake Ontario, plans were 

 made for extended egg collections, and had it not been for the unfor- 

 tunate weather conditions a considerable degree of success might 

 have been attained. Under existing circumstances 1,270,000 eggs 

 of good quality were collected, also 335,000 lake trout eggs and 

 100,000 cisco eggs — the first ever incubated at the station. During 

 the spring 2,800,000 pike perch eggs were secured from the fisheries 

 m the vicinity. The customary transfers of eggs of the lake trout, 

 whitefish, and pike perch were made to Cape Vincent from other 

 stations of the Bureau, and the resulting fry were liberated in the 

 lake ui good condition. 



NEW ENGLAND STATIONS. 



At Swanton, Vt., despite the adverse weather conditions encoun- 

 tered at the height of the pike perch spawning season and the smaller 

 numbers of brood fish available as compared with other years, the 

 results of the work were encouragmg. The success is attributable to 

 a change in methods. Instead of relying, as heretofore, upon deliv- 

 eries of brood fish at the station by commercial fishermen, spawn- 

 takers "uere sent m boats to the fishing shores to take the eggs as 

 soon as the fish were removed from the nets and to return the imma- 

 ture females and surplus males to the spawning groimds in the 

 ^dcinity of the station. This eliminated the excessive handlmg and 

 consequent injury to the brood fish experienced under the old system 

 of assorting and holding in pens to ripen and resulted in a larger 

 take of eggs, and eggs of finer quality, than in any previous year in 

 the liistory of the station. ' The collections amounted, in round 

 numbers, to 217,000,000, and the output of fry was 51 J per cent 

 of the number of eggs retained in the hatchery for incubation. 



The Atlantic salmon operations at the Craig Brook, Me., station 

 resulted in the production of 1,820,349 young fish, liberated in the 

 Penobscot River and its tributaries. This is a falling off as com- 

 pared with the output of 1911, but it does not indicate any decrease 

 in the run of Atlantic salmon in the Penobscot River. On the con- 

 trary, the statistics published by the Maine commissioner of sea and 



