206 PACIFIC SALMON FISHERIES. 
An interesting experiment was conducted at the Afognak station last season [1910] 
to determine the degree of ripeness producing the best quality of eggs. The loss on 
the lot taken from females which were dead ripe—eggs flowing very freely—was less 
than 1 per cent, while with another lot, where the females were ordinarily ripe upon 
testing in the usual manner, the loss was about 5 per cent. This shows the need of 
caution in having fish fully ripe before stripping if the highest degree of efficiency is 
to be expected. 
TAKING THE EGGS. 
As the eggs of the females confined in pens are likely to be injured 
within the fish, stripping is usually done every day. 
When ready for spawn taking one man lifts a female from the live 
box by means of a small dip net, while another man lifts out a male 
in the same manner. They are held suspended in the net until 
their violent struggles are over, when it is easy to handle them. 
For many years, and even yet at many hatcheries, the method of 
taking salmon spawn has been by pressing the eggs out by steady 
downward pressure on the belly of the fish. The milt from the male 
is obtained in the same way. 
Where the force is large and the fish rather small the quickest 
way is for one to hold the fish in one hand and press out the eggs 
or milt with the other. When the fish are large, or the working 
force is small, a strait-jacket is used. This is a sort of trough made 
about the average length of the salmon and hollowed out to fit its 
general shape. A permanent cleat is set across the lower end, 
while at the upper end is a strip with a buckle. The fish is slid 
into the trough, the tail going below the cleat, where it is securely 
held, and the head buckled in at the upper end with the strap. In 
this condition the fish is unable to do any harm by its struggles and 
the eggs can be pressed out at leisure. 
A more modern method in use at many hatcheries, which has been 
well described by Mr. Bower,? is as follows: 
The long-followed process of taking Pacific salmon eggs by hand expression has been 
superseded in the last few years by the method of incision, a method discovered and 
developed by the late Cloudsley Rutter in connection with his study of the life history 
of the salmon of the Sacramento River. This consists simply of making a cut in the 
abdominal walls from the throat or near the pectoral fins to the vent, the fish just 
previously having been killed by a blow on the back of the head. When making the 
cut the knife is either shielded by a guard or is so held between the thumb and fore- 
finger as to allow not more than half an inch of the blade to project, thus precluding the 
possibility of injuring any of the eggs. Immediately following the incision the eggs 
flow in a mass into the spawning pan beneath. The operator’s fingers are inserted 
into the abdominal cavity gently to assist in removing any eggs that may be enfolded 
in the organs or that may merely adhere to the walls of the cavity. Fertilization is ‘ 
accomplished in the usual manner. 
a Fish culture in Alaska. By Ward T. Bower. Alaska fisheries and fur industries, 1911. United States 
Bureau of Fisheries, document no. 766, p. 80, 81. 
