REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. ot 
as the surrounding marshes where they usually spread out were dry, 
they ascended the main river, where seining conditions were all that 
could be desired. As a result of five days’ fishing—from April 14 
to 18, inclusive—enough ripe fish were seined from the river to more 
than fill the Swanton hatchery to its capacity, and it became neces- 
sary to discontinue the work at a time when the run of fish was 
apparently at its height. Eggs to the number of 382,800,000 were 
taken, of which 75,400,000 were forwarded direct from the spawning 
field to other stations—15,000,000 to the Massachusetts Fish Com- 
mission and the remainder to the Cape Vincent hatchery of the 
Bureau. The percentage of fertility of the eggs hatched, namely, 
48.7, was not quite equal to that of the preceding year, but it 
was remarkably high when one considers the crowded condition 
of the hatchery and the short space of time in which the eggs had to 
be handled. In returning the fry to the lake special efforts were 
made to spread them over as wide a territory as possible, and in 
order to more effectively accomplish this one of the Bureau’s cars 
was utilized for the distribution, consignments being delivered to 
interested parties at various places along an extended portion of the 
lake front. 
PROPAGATION OF MIGRATORY FISHES OF THE ATLANTIC STREAMS. 
A general falling off occurred in the output of the stations han- 
dling the anadromous species of the Atlantic seaboard—the shad, 
striped bass, white perch, and yellow perch. The decline in the run 
of shad in the Chesapeake Bay and tributary streams during the 
spring of 1915 was more marked than in the preceding year, when 
the run of fish was the smallest in the history of the Bureau’s opera- 
tions with the species. 
On Potomac River experienced spawn takers attended every gill 
net and seine operated in the vicinity of the Bryan’s Point hatchery, 
and a barge equipped with a battery of hatching jars, which were 
supplied with water by means of a gasoline pump, was stationed at 
Occoquan Creek, Va., with a crew of four men, to attend the seine 
fishery at Stony Point and the gill netters operating in that section 
of the river. Strong northwest winds and low atmospheric and water 
temperatures prevailed throughout the season. The first eggs were 
obtained April 21, and during the spawning season, which continued 
until May 13, the collections amounted to 16,012,000, from which 
13,899,000 fry, or less than one-half the output of the previous year, 
were produced. 
Good results attended the operations with the yellow perch, the 
19,769 brood fish secured from the local fishermen in February pro- 
ducing 164,775,000 eggs, from which 151,592,000 fry were tin tched. 
and 1,500,000 eyed eggs transferred to Central Station, Washington, 
D. C., for development. A feature of the yellow-perch work this 
year at the Bryan’s Point station was the hatching of all the eggs in 
wire baskets swung from poles located in sheltered waters, thus 
obviating the expense involved in operating pumps, which is necessary 
when the eggs are developed in the hatchery, as has been the method 
heretofore pursued. 
There was no improvement of conditions as regards the run of 
shad in Susquehanna River, and the shad operations at the Battery 
