1010 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



have been washed iu a tank of running water for several days before use. 

 It should be squeezed, so that the water retained in it will not drip. 

 This is necessary to prevent the packing between the inner and the outer 

 box from becoming saturated, and may possibly also be necessary be- 

 cause of the danger of stale dead water to the eggs. The moss should now 

 be spread upon the bottom of the box to the thickness of an inch when 

 pressed flat. Squares of millinet, from which the sizing has been washed 

 out, should be cut rather smaller than the inside area of the box, and after 

 being moistened with water, laid over the bed of moss. The eggs are now 

 laid upon this in a thin layer not more than two or three deep for white- 

 fish eggs and about three or four for salmon; when they have been dis- 

 tributed equally with a feather, a square of wet millinet is put over them, 

 and upon this a layer of moss of the thickness of an inch is again packed 

 level, the millinet is again laid over the moss, the eggs are put upon 

 it, and so on until three or four layers of eggs are placed. The moss 

 should now be piled up, so that when patted down with the hands it 

 projects an inch or more above the edge of the box, and when the lid is 

 put on and set tight with screws, the eggs are moderately snug and firm 

 in their position from the slight compression of the moss. It is usual 

 to bore a number of small holes in tbe box. 



Thus far they are supposed to be secured from shaking about and 

 from danger of becoming dry. Tbe needful security from changes of 

 temperature is now to be made. Mr. Livingston Stone has devised the 

 best method yet tried in this country. 



The boxes, packed as described above, containing three or four layers 

 of eggs, are about seven inches thick. The boxes used for shipping 

 California salmon eggs, by the United States Commission, are about 

 two feet square. Mr. Stone places two of these in a crate, made of strips 

 of pine, large enough to permit a space of about one foot between the 

 two boxes and a space on all sides of them of about six inches. Tbe 

 outside space is to be packed tightly with packing which is the best 

 non-conductor of heat that can be obtained. At the station where the 

 salmon-breeding establishment is, it is the withered leaves of ferns. In 

 tbe space between the boxes large lumps of ice are put, a plug of the 

 dead leaves being inserted at each end of the space, above and below 

 the ice. One of the strips which make the top of the crate is movable, 

 so that it can be taken out and the plug of leaves removed when 

 the ice is to be renewed. Fifty such crates, containing each 80,000 sal- 

 mon eggs, have been sent in a car across the continent, a journey of 

 seven days. An attendant accompanied them to renew the ice, which 

 was carried iu the car, and the eggs arrived in the very best condition. 



The Holton hatching-box, referred to, is figured and described iu 

 part 2, of the Report of the United States Commissioner, before referred 

 to, as well as other apparatus whicn have now generally been substi- 

 tuted for the old-fashioned troughs throughout the United States and 

 Canada. These tray methods economise space very much and give 



