XL VIII REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



tbe lake, this beiiii;- leiulered necessary owing to the rough and hum- 

 mocky condition of the ice, which made it iiupossil)le to get out to the 

 usual planting-grounds with the cans of fry. Plantings were continued 

 at intervals till the 30th of April, during which time 11,727,000 fry were 

 placed off Lester Eiver; 3,000,000 at the mouth of the ship canal, 

 Duluth, and 2,000,000 in Lake St. Croix, St. Croix Eiver, near Hudson, 

 Wis. The loss in eggs and fry was 1,273,000. 



Lalie trout. — On September 23, 1801, one man was sent to the north 

 shore of Lake Superior, in the vicinity of Isle Royale, to arrange for the 

 taking of eggs of this species. Owing to the continued rough and 

 stormy weather no eggs were secured by the force till the second 

 week in October, the first consignment reaching the station October 

 13, and the last November 10, and at the end of the month there were 

 in the hatchery about 700,000 good eggs. The eggs of the Lake 

 Superior lake trout are larger and of deeper color than those from the 

 Lake Erie lish, and tbe fry, when hatched, are much larger and more vig- 

 orous and grow more rapidly. The eggs commenced to hatch January 

 12, 1892, and on March 31 there were 504,500 strong fry from this col- 

 lection. In addition to the eggs collected by this station there were 

 received from the North ville Station, of eggs collected by the Alpena 

 Station, three consignments, on December 29, January 7, and January 

 10, from which were obtained 920,300 good eggs. On January 10 

 these eggs began to hatch. The distribution of fry commenced June 

 0, during the month 480,000 being planted, all in Lake Superior. 

 Of these, 130,000 were produced from eggs obtained at Isle Eoyala and 

 350,000 from those sent from the Northville Station. The number of 

 fry retained at the station after the close of the year was 843,400. 



Pile perch. — The eggs of this fish were obtained from Pike River, 

 an aitiuent of Vermilion Lake, in the vicinity of Tower, Minn., and 

 from the St. Louis River, near Fond du Lac, Minn. The fish in Pike 

 River usually spawn a week to ten days earlier than those in the St. 

 Louis River. On April 18 one of the men was sent to Pike River to 

 make preparations for the gathering of eggs as soon as the fish began 

 to run and indicated their readiness to spawn. A short distance up 

 the river is a sloping barrier of rock, which stops the ascent of the fish, 

 and here they congregate in ct)untless numbers as the spawning season 

 approaches. The fish of the first catches were hard and unripe and 

 were held in crates till ready to spawn, a course that had proved 

 successful in i)revious years. At Pike River this season it failed 

 completely, the eggs from fish held for twenty-four hours proving 

 worthless, the spots being so defined as to give a mottled ai)pearance 

 to the mass in the pans upon first extrusion and in an hour or two the 

 entire &gg becoming opaque and lifeless. 



On April 25 a man was sent to the St, Louis Ifiver, the tish having 

 there commenced to run, but no ripe ones were secured till May 7, and 

 on May 12 the work was terminated, owing to the rising river and 

 lieavy current, which practi('ally stopped the run of the fish. The eggs 



