XVIII.— REPORT ON THE ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION OF THE 

 CODFISH AT WOOD'S HOLL, MASS., FOR THE SEASON OF 

 1885-'86. 



By James Carswell. 



Having received instructions on the 1st of December to proceed to 

 Wood's Holl, Mass.. and report to Capt. FI. C. Chester to assist in cod- 

 fish hatching, I left Washington December 2 for that place, taking 

 with ine all the necessary apparatus. 



On my arrival at Wood's Holl Captain Chester was engaged in car- 

 rying on a series of experiments for the hatching of codfish eggs, and 

 after conference with him I learned that his idea was that in order to 

 secure success the eggs must have motion, and that all the apparatus he 

 had tried previous to that time, and was still using, was constructed un- 

 der this impression. He had several boxes fitted up with jets of water 

 let in, one so as to merely move the eggs, the others varying in velocity 

 from 1 to 4 miles an hour ; but all of these arrangements resulted in 

 failure. I had been sent on with apparatus constructed by Colonel Mc- 

 Donald, designed for using the tidal motion, but Captain Chester ap- 

 peared to be thoroughly convinced that motion was the thing. There 

 was also at the station an arrangement of barrels put up by direction 

 of Major Ferguson which failed, and the only success which had been 

 attained up to this time was by a series of cones, which Captain Ches- 

 ter called the "Tanner arrangement." In this a very small percentage 

 was hatched out ; but it had the effect of changing our minds in regard 

 to the necessary motion, as the eggs worked very slowly with a tidal 

 motion. 



On the 4th I fitted up two tubs aud glass aquaria with side and cen- 

 ter jets, siphon bag in center, and water escaping at the bottom. On 

 the 5th I procured 400,000 eggs and placed an equal number in each 

 of the two apparatus. I was very much pleased with the motion, 

 which was just enough to force the eggs slowly to the bottom, diffusing 

 them well through the water, and then rising toward the surface. 

 Having had no previous experience, I thought by what I had learned 

 from Captain Chester and by examining his apparatus that I had com- 

 bined all the necessary conditions to secure success. The eggs looked 

 all right and seemed to be doing very well, although a great many ad- 



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