1012 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



sentatives, January 1, 1876, Annapolis, Md,, John J. Wiley, State prin- 

 ter, p. 48. 



It will be seen that, by the tray methods it is not necessary to pick over 

 the eggs within the troughs, but that they may be removed to a more 

 convenient position. The way adopted by Mr. Clark, and now coming 

 into general use, is to have a shallow picking-trough, with a flow of 

 water of less than one inch depth, usually placed directly in front of the 

 windows along the side of the house. 



The later experiments in this country are, however, in an entirely dif- 

 ferent direction. So far, of course, they have not had the years of use 

 which establishes the success of the tray method. 



The initial move in the direction of hatching eggs en masse is of 

 course the shad-hatching box of Seth Green. This is peculiarly adapted 

 for shad, and is restricted, of course, to the open water during the warm 

 portion of the year, and precludes the hatching of such fishes as are de- 

 veloped during the cold of winter. It also assumes it desirable that 

 the eggs shall be kept in motion, the inflow of water raising them gently 

 each time they fall back toward the bottom of the box. 



The first attempt to adapt this idea of hatching eggs in bulk, instead 

 of layers, on the inside of a hatching-house, was made by Mr. Fred. 

 Mather, while in the employment of the United States Commission 

 Fisheries. With the aid of Mr. Charles Bell, also of our corps, he 

 devised a funnel-shaped apparatus, with the water introduced from the 

 small end passing through a strainer of wire-cloth at the bottom of the 

 funnel upon which the eggs fell, to be immediately, though gently, 

 carried upward by the current of water, until, when near the top, they 

 fell over to the sides of the funnel and rolled downward, to be again 

 carried upward when they touched the stronger jjortion of the current. 

 With this apparatus, a quantity of shad eggs was successfully hatched 

 in the wash-room of a hotel. 



The apparatus was described and figured in Forest and Stream of 

 New York, in 1875, and will appear with a description in the Report of 

 the [United States] Commissioner of Fisheries, part III, soon to be pub- 

 lished. 



Mr. Oren M. Chase, employed by the Michigan commission, has 

 devised two or three forms of apparatus, one of which promises to be 

 not only an effective but a beautiful and attractive apparatus. 



In this arrangement the eggs are impregnated, and put into the 

 vessel in large quantities, and thus left entirely to themselves, the dead 

 eggs rapidly becoming light, in the process of decay float up and out 

 of the vessel. The current of water among the moving eggs keeps them 

 clean and bright, although the water used is perhaps fuller of silt and 

 sediment than that of any other hatching-house in the United States. 

 If this process answers the purpose, as it seems to have done the past 

 two seasons with small quantities of eggs (50,000 eggs of Goregontis 



