COLLECTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF SCHOODIC SALMON EGGS. 795 



old fish free in the lake. With the purpose of securing them as far 

 as possible from destruction, and aflbrding the best facilities for feed- 

 ing and recovering their condition, wa take them in salmon-cars from a 

 mile and a half to two miles up the lake and there set them free. The 

 cars used are fishing "dories" sunk in the water, with grated apertures 

 at either end, the same used on the Penobscot. From one to two hun- 

 dred of these Schoodic salmon can be transported in one of them at each 

 trii3. The weather, fortunately, has been mild for several weeks; othei'- 

 wise we might be unable to force our way far up the lake by reason of ice. 



JDecemhcr 4. — To-day we finished taking spawn by giving the final 

 manipulation to the last fish. We have taken in all 1,723,000 eggs. 



Becemher C. — All the nets and chains were taken out of the water to- 

 day, except a net to guard the passage of the dam by any returning fish. 



Grand Lake is not yet frozen over. Big Lake and the other lower 

 lakes are also open, and the steamer continues to run between this 

 stream and Princeton. Ordinarily the lower lakes close about the 18th 

 of November ; and this year there have been two interruptions to navi- 

 gation. On the night of November 15 those lakes froze ov^er and so 

 remained for a week, and once since then they have been frozen over 

 for a single day. 



Becemher 9. — Last night the thermometer dropped to 12° P., and 

 ice formed on Grand Lake as far as we can see from the outlet. Within 

 six days the temperature of the water in the new hatching-house has 

 fallen from 40° to 32^ P., and we do not expect to see it often above 

 340 until spring opens. 



A good many of the fish that we carried up the lake have come back 

 and got into the canal, and others are hanging about near the dam, just 

 above the net set to intercept their descent. I think they are nearly all 

 males; I looked carefully at about 50 of them and do not see one that I 

 think is a female. 



Becetnher 11. — A warm rain, with a southeast wind, breaks up the ice 

 in Grand Lake and carries off the snow. There is quite a flood in the 

 brook at the old hatching-house and the water rises to within 3 inches 

 of the tops of the hatching-troughs. A good deal of sediment is depos- 

 ited in the troughs and on the eggs in both houses, but they can be 

 easily cleansed by the careful hands of Mr. Munson. Grand Lake has 

 risen to 3 feet 6^ inches on our gauge ; it has been steadily rising since 

 November 10, when it stood at 1 foot 9 inches. 



December 13. — The last of our nets removed from the water to-day. 

 No fish to be seen about the dam, and I think most of them have re- 

 turned to the lake. 



December 14. — The wind blew strongly from the northeast throughout 

 last night, and the lake being open, and the temperature low (15° P.), 

 the rapidl3-formihg ice-crystals were driven down to the dam, where 

 they were piled up in a mass that clogged the gates and came near 

 being the cause of a serious calamity. At 6.30 a. m. it was discovered 



