30 Report of the American 



its poisonous folds an}' adjoining eggs, killing them at once. This 

 insidious growth works great destruction to the semi-incubated egg. 

 Clusters of a hundred and more are thus sometimes found in the crevices 

 of the larger gravel in a putrid state. This great scourge of the ova is 

 very difficult to overcome, .even in the purest water, and where the 

 greatest attention is given to prevent its growth. 



Another great loss of the ova takes place during the long and inclem- 

 ent winter months, from the formation of anchor ice, which, in shallow 

 parts of rivers and streams, prevails to such an extent as to become one 

 solid mass, in man}' instances forcing the stream out of the channel in 

 which it flowed during the autumn. The eggs thus having lost their 

 covering of water, become frozen and die. Great destruction is also 

 caused by the shifting and shoving of ice from the effects of heavy 

 freshets. Whole sections where salmon beds had been made are some- 

 times swept away, and become so changed as to leave no vestige of their 

 original formation. 



The remnant of the eggs which may have escaped destruction from the 

 above mentioned sources will in April and May hatch out and become 

 3'oung fry. At this time they are helpless in the extreme, lying prone on 

 their sides, with a large bag or umbilical sac attached to their bodies. 

 In this stage of their existence the}^ remain about five or six weeks, until 

 b}' a process of absorption, brought about b}' an increased warmth of 

 the water in Spring, the sac hitherto attached to the body disappears, 

 and the little fish, now symmetrically formed, begin to roam about in a 

 lively manner in search of food. From the time of emerging from the 

 shell up to the present time they are still an easy pre}- for their numerous 

 enemies. 



The difficulties above enumerated, which beset the egg from the time 

 when it was first laid up to the period of its hatching out into a young 

 fish, though somewhat numerous, are by no means all that it has to 

 encounter. There is to be added the destruction by aquatic birds, pollu- 

 ted water, deleterious substances of various kinds, which ai'e constantly 

 thrown into the streams from manufacturing establishments, saw dust 

 and rubbish from saw mills, washings from barn yards and turnpike 

 roads, natural and artificial manures, and other foreign substances used 

 upon the soil in farming, draining, etc. All fiowing more or less at 

 times into the streams, and settling upon these beds, so pollute the water 

 and otherwise injuriously affect them, as to cause immense losses to fish 

 eggs, and also to the newly hatched out, and as undeveloped and very 

 delicate fry. 



Of the eggs thus deposited, scarcely one in a hundred ever produces a 

 living fish. Yet withal, fish are so prolific in their nature that there 



