446 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



when carrying tlirougli the first shipment of shad to California, found 

 them on the sixth and seventh days out looking for food, and ff^-lt satis- 

 fied from their actions that they found it in the water supplied them 

 from the rivers after passing the region of impure waters. 



Mineral waters may inspire fear, and it is perhaps premature to advise 

 their use, but that they are not all injurious has been proven by several 

 tests made this season. While at Toledo, Ohio, the water of the arte- 

 sian well at the depot, clear and cold, but having a strong mineral 

 flavor, thought to be sulphur, was avoided for use in the cans, but a 

 couple of quarts were put into a v^essel and about two dozen shad put 

 into it about midnight, and remained in most perfect condition up to 8 

 o'clock in the morning, when they were put into the Maumee River. 



At Castalia, Ohio, at the paper-mill ot Mr. John Hoyt, speckled trout 

 are hatched and raised successfully in water from a spring so heavily 

 charged with calcareous matter thac the tufa incrusts everything falling 

 into its waters. Prof. J. Lang Cassels, of Cleveland, found that out of 

 ninety-two grains of solid matter to the gallon there was of carbonate 

 of lime 58.86 grains, and of carbonate of magnesia 10.632 grains. 



Seth Green, in his trip with shad in 1871, found water from Omaha 

 westward for four hundred miles unfavorable to the shad, and in some 

 of it the young fish died within five minutes from the time they were 

 put into the vessel containing it. 



All mineral- waters should be used cautiously and tests made with 

 small quantities of water before they are used on the fish in the cans. 



While at Portland, Me., this season, two dozen shad were removed 

 directly from fresh water and were kept in a few quarts of sea-water for 

 two hours without the least apparent injury from the salt or the greater 

 specific gravity. 



There are some who assert that roily water has no objections for use 

 with young shad. If there were no other objection the anxiety as to 

 the condition of the fish, which it is almost impossible to ascertain in 

 muddy water, is a sufiflcieut one. Besides, the silt or sand is liable to 

 trouble the movement of the gills, and the attrition upon the delicate 

 membranes of the embryo fish, while the water is agitated in the rail- 

 road-car, must do some injury to them. And the experience of this 

 season's work has been that the lafge percentages of losses in the cans 

 have been when roily water had been used at some locality while en 

 route., and of course indicating that a longer use of it would have re- 

 sulted disastrously. When it is necessary to use muddy water, as soon 

 afterward as clear water can be procured, the largest change practica 

 ble had better be afforded the cans. 



The water from railroad-tanks, though avoided during this season's 

 shipments, was, perhaps, rejected through a somewhat unfounded pre- 

 judice. Where few locomotives are supplicLl, the water may become 

 warm, stagnant, and tainted from decaying wood, but when the tank is 

 frequently replenished with fresh water no such objection can arise, 



