ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION OF PACIFIC SALMONS. 19 



with a broaclax, so that the fish may bleed freely. While this is not 

 absolutely essential, it prevents the eggs from coming in contact 

 with a large quantity of blood. The fish are washed by dashing 

 water over them, the blood escaping through the open floor. 



Male fish are then thrown out from their pen and left long enough 

 to undergo the exhaustion necessary to permit their being handled 

 without much difficulty. 



The spawn taker uses a " straight- jacket," as it is called, merely 

 for the convenience of holding the fish. This is a sort of trough 

 made the average length of a salmon and hollowed out to fit its gen- 

 eral shape. A female is picked up by the gills and placed in this 

 device. With a sharp, short-bladed knife the spawn taker makes an 

 incision from the vent through the thin abdominal wall along 

 the side, and the eggs flow out into a spawning pan or bucket held 

 by another attendant. This is immediately passed to a third man, 

 while a fourth man picks up a male fish. Grasping the tail of the 

 fish with his left hand, and thrusting its head under his right arm, 

 or in the case of a larger fish, between the knees, with his right hand 

 he presses the milt out upon the eggs as soon as possible after they are 

 taken. The eggs and milt are then thoroughly mixed by stirring 

 with the hand. After being allowed to stand for a few minutes the 

 milt is washed off, and the eggs are transferred to buckets and car- 

 ried to the hatchery. Here they remain undisturbed until they have 

 become water hardened and separate, when they are measured into 

 egg baskets. The male fish is returned to the stream for use in fu- 

 ture spaw^ning operations. 



Blueback salmon in Alaska begin to leave the lakes in late August 

 and September and ascend the streams to their headwaters to spawn. 

 At suitable places near the mouths of such streams the fish are inter- 

 cepted by racks, and seining operations are conducted in the waters 

 below. The seine used, which is about 300 feet long, is loaded on 

 a boat at a point below the rack, and, one end being held on shore, the 

 remainder is distributed to posts projecting from the rack to the far- 

 ther side of the stream. From here the boat continues downstream 

 in a long sweep until the seine is played out to form a semicircle. 

 The end last played out is operated by a man in waders, while the 

 boat with the lead rope continues on to the starting point on the shore. 

 At a given signal men stationed along the rack release the seine and 

 follow it as it is hauled toward the shore, the two ends being brought 

 together so as to completely envelop the fish, which are gradually 

 worked toward the center. The seine is then stretched or hung on 

 horses or tripods, and men equipped with woolen gloves grasp the 

 corralled fish by the tail, segregate the sexes, and distribute them in 

 boxes conveniently placed for the purpose. These boxes, supported 

 on legs about 3 feet long, are made of three- fourths-inch lumber and 

 divided by partitions into from 8 to 10 cells, each of them large 

 enough to hold a fish placed in it head foremost, leaving about 6 

 inches of the tail protruding. 



An operator stands at a box in which females have been placed and 

 assorts them to determine as to their spawning condition, placing the 

 ripe ones in another box and throwing the unripe ones back into the 

 stream. A second man stands at the box containing the ripe fish and 

 removes them one by one, killing them by a blow on the head with 

 a club. They are then placed on a spawning table having a top 2 by 



