74 ALASKA laSHEBIES AND FUR INDUSTRIES, 1911. 



The hatchery building is well lighted by electricity, power for the 

 generator being derived from a Pelton water wheel. Steam heat is 

 provided. Quarters for the employees are located at one end of and 

 overhead the hatching room. The force varies from 6 or 8 to 15 or 

 20 men, depending upon the season of the year. 



The water supply is conveyed by an open ditch about 1 mile from 

 a series of springs to a most elaborate filtration plant. A small creek 

 near the hatchery also furnishes some water during certain portions 

 of the year. 



Brood fish are taken by natives with seines operated in the river 

 below the hatchery. No rack or barrier is erected, thus permitting a 

 good escape up to the natural spawning grounds of Karluk Lake. 

 The stock fish are transferred to two inclosures or corrals; also to a 

 few small ponds to remain until ripening. The corrals are of woven 

 wire, l|-inch mesh, supported on tripods of 3-inch iron pipe. The 

 corrals are built in semicircular form and measure from 700 to 900 

 feet around from shore to shore with a maximum depth of about 6 

 feet. Tills year the secondary corral was built on the opposite shore 

 instead of just below the main corral as heretofore; it was thought 

 to secure a better bottom and clearer water. Of some 25,000 fish 

 being held in the new corral an estimated number of 20,000 escaped 

 July 13 and passed on upstream to the natural spawning beds. The 

 corrals are normally in fresh water, though they are influenced by 

 high tides. 



In addition to the corrals there are 12 ponds in which brood salmon 

 are held wliile ripening. These ponds are one above another on the 

 side of a slope, and the fish are moved up the liill by means of a gravity 

 system of counterbalanced cars. The ponds range in size from 220 

 to 1,140 square feet, and all the way from 700 to 1,800 adult fish are 

 put in a pond according to its size. A good supply of water is fur- 

 nished. Quite a number of fish spawn both in the corrals and ponds. 

 It is estimated that as high as 15 per cent are thus lost from all of the 

 fish handled. 



Eggs are taken by incision, but the process is peculiar in that the 

 cut is made foi-ward from the vent to the ventral fins. Quite a num- 

 ber of eggs have thus been left in the fish, but by adopting the better 

 method of a longer incision, extending from the pectoral fins to the 

 vent aU eggs will be saved. The placing hereafter of the egg buckets 

 upon a stand or platform independent of that where spawning opera- 

 tions are conducted will do away with the chance for loss as a result 

 of concussion during the tender adhesive period of an hour or so 

 after the eggs are taken. Measurement of the quantity of eggs is 

 made by means of a dipper holding about 4,000 eggs, count being 

 made at frequent intervals to check the average number of eggs con- 



