50 KEPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



abandoninent of the work, and thereby making this source of supply 

 very uncertain, Omng to low water in the upper Mississippi River in 

 the summer of 1911, rescue operations in fields withm reach of the 

 Manchester and Homer stations were confined to a very small terri- 

 tory. Conditions on the Illinois River were more favorable, and the 

 collections of black bass, crappie, and other fishes, though not as 

 large as those of last year, were very satisfactory. But the present 

 high cost of livmg, coupled with the expense involved in the trans- 

 portation of foodstuffs to outlymg districts, has forcefully called 

 attention to the value of fish ponds as an economical source of food 

 supply, thus creating a demand which the Bureau has been unable 

 to meet with its present facilities. This increasing demand can only 

 be met through the establishment of additional pond-cultural stations. 



In accordance with the custom of recent years, the larger portion 

 of the brook-trout eggs handled at the eastern and central stations of 

 the Bureau were purchased from commercial fish culturists, expe- 

 rience having demonstrated that satisfactory results can be secured 

 by this method, and at less expense than is entailed in makmg collec- 

 tions from open waters within range of such stations. At stations 

 located in fields where the expense involved m the collection of wUd 

 eggs justifies field operations the results have been gratifymg. This 

 is true of the stations located in the Rocky Mountains. 



The results attending the propagation of the black-spotted trout 

 in the Yellowstone National Park, which is the source of egg supply 

 for the South Dakota, Montana, and Colorado stations, justifies the 

 prosecution of the work on a more extensive scale another year. 

 During the summer of 1911 considerably over 20,000,000 eggs were col- 

 lected and 14,253,451 fry hatched. This excellent work was accom- 

 plished with fish-cultural facilities of the most primitive character, and 

 without sufficient shelter for the employees engaged in the operations. 

 The impossibility of handlmg the large numbers of eggs with the api)a- 

 ratus available at the field stations m the park necessitated the hurried 

 construction of additional hatchmg troughs, which were located in 

 the beds of streams and at other points where a water supply by 

 gravity could be secured. Frequent losses of eggs occurred in these 

 unsheltered troughs through the depredations of bears. Operations 

 in this field are not undertaken until late in June, but at the end of 

 the last fiscal year the indications were that the egg collections would 

 exceed those of the previous year. 



FISH-CULTURAL NOTES. 



Experimental propagation of huffalojish. — This work was continued 

 at the auxiliary stations on the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers, 

 the observations this year being confined to the smaU-mouth buffalo. 



