140 Thirtieth Annual Meeting 



great success, instead of whieli we were on the eve of a great 

 failure. 



A consignment of eggs which had heen in the meantime sent 

 to Cape Vincent Station met with the same fate, the water of the 

 St. Lawrence used at this station l)eing also comparatively cold 

 at this season. 



We afterwards discovered a s])awning ground of the stur- 

 geon on the shore of Lake Champlain, a short distance south of 

 the mouth of the Lamoille. Here is a well-protected bay, with a 

 beach sloping very gradually out to deep water. In the shallow 

 waters of this bay, in water not over three feet deep, strange to 

 say, the sturgeon come to spawn in the month of June. Here we 

 found them spawning in plain sight from the shore. We 

 set trap nets and gill nets here, and caught many ripe males and 

 se^'e^al ripe females, the first week in June, but did not succeed 

 in collecting any impregnated eggs. 



I may add here that the sturgeon eggs that we took averaged 

 850 to the fluid ounce. They are apparently amorphous as to 

 shape, and of a dull and dirty color, but this appearance is given 

 them by a cobwebby film which surrounds each k^^g. The film 

 can be easily separated from the eggs by squeezing the Qgg out of 

 it with the fingers, and the egg is then seen to be spherical, clear, 

 and crystalline like other fish eggs, and not very different in size 

 from white fish eggs, though perhaps somewhat larger. 



The eggs come very easily from the parent fish when they are 

 ripe. They are somewhat glutinous, but if taken from a freshly 

 caugh fish, they are no more so than pike perch eggs, and if 

 treated as pike perch eggs are when taken, they will give no 

 trouble in sticking together, and will easily hatch out eighty per 

 cent, or ninety per cent, of healthy fry. The eggs that were 

 taken at the Swanton hatchery hatclied in seven days in an aver- 

 age tem])erature of 65 degrees F. Their mobility was so much 

 less than that of pike perch eggs that it took a stream of water 

 running through a three-eighth incli nd)l)er tube with about a six 

 foot pressure to keep them in motion in the hatching jars. The 

 young fry are hardy and very active, but if they are to be con- 

 fined in tanks or troughs, the screening must be very tight, as 

 they can work themselves through an extremely small crevice. 



Allow me to state in conclusion, as I have already done, in 



