THE HISTORY OP FISH CULTURE. 549 



" In November, 1870, I started again for Ecorse for the purpose of 

 I)rooiniDg more spawn. Mr. George Clark, at his fishery, very kindly 

 rendered me all the aid in his power, furnishing the parent fish for the 

 purpose of trying further experiments in this new enterprise. I suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining all the spawn needed for further trial, but he was 

 so anxious to make it a success that he sent his man to me with an ex- 

 tra lot which he thought might be in better condition. I succeeded in 

 hatching a much larger proportion of them than the year before, but 

 raising them with artificial food was attended with no better success. 

 This second eltort and faikire led me to investigate the cause, and after 

 much thought I came to the conclusion that if we ever succeeded in 

 making this branch of pisciculture a success, we must study the princi- 

 ples of nature more than had ever been done before. I became fully 

 satisfied that by arranging so as to use water taken from a pond or lake 

 entirely frozen over, it would retard the development of the eggs to the 

 time required by nature, which proved by subsequent experience to be 

 about April L I then consulted Messrs. George Clark and John P. 

 Clark, and made known to them my convictions, and so strongly were 

 they convinced that I had struck the key-note to insure ultimate success 

 that they proi^osed to furnish all the necessary materials and a portion 

 of the labor to enable me to go on and erect a large hatching establish- 

 ment. This was located about 80 rods below the spring where we had 

 been experimenting the two years previous with the unsatisfactory re- 

 sults above stated. This location was supposed to be a sufficient dis 

 tance below the main spring, so that by damming the water and raising 

 a pond it would freeze over and remain so during the period of incuba- 

 tion. 



*'Uur views proved to be correct, as the 500,000 of eggs which we 

 plactnl in the hatching-boxes November 15 of that year were in-eserved 

 in fair condition, and with one-quarter less labor in caring for them than 

 ibrmerly. They did not commence to hatch until April 1, and it was es- 

 timated that we succeeded in hatching at least 50 per cent, of the eggs 

 we had taken four and one-half months previously at the fishery of 

 George Clark. 



" Of these young fry, some 100,000 of them were put in Detroit River, 

 at or near his fishery place, and no doubt at this time they are thriving 

 finely in the waters of Lake Erie, which abounds with abundant natural 

 food for them, and in a year or two more they will doubtless return to 

 the same place where they were deposited. The balance of them we 

 placed in three small lakes in Oakland County, some of which have 

 been seen within the last few months, doing finely. 



" This experiment prov^ed so great a success that again, the next No- 

 vember, 1872, through the encouragement of the Messrs. Clark and the 

 United States Fish, commissioner,! doubled the capacity of this hatching- 

 house and procured 1,000,000 of the ova from the same grounds, and jn-o- 

 ceeded as before with some improvements I made in the modus operandi of 



