44 American Fisheries Society 



nearly ripe, but sick and soon died. I am convinced 

 that had she been placed in the live-car soon after com- 

 ing on the slide she would have ripened. There were 

 a number of large fish caught previous to my arrival 

 at Weldon that undoubtedly would have ripened had the 

 car had proper circulation and had the fish been re- 

 moved to it without injury. 



I might mention here that one million five hundred 

 thousand eggs taken from a fish caught by Mr. Henry 

 Grant were fertilized by milt from male fish held in 

 confinement. Otherwise these eggs would have been 

 lost as no other male fish were available at the time. 



None of the tests were ideal as all the fish, male and 

 female, were held in one live-car and it was impractic- 

 able to examine any one fish without seining up the 

 whole bunch. This was injurious to them for in their 

 struggles in the net their sharp spines cut each other 

 and fungus soon developed, other unfavorable conditions 

 were the frequent handling of all of them to keep track 

 of the condition of one or two nearly ripe, the continu- 

 ous presence of men around the car which was fastened 

 to the house boat, and the small depth of water in the 

 car, but two feet. 



RECAPITULATION. 



1. Seven of the thirty fish penned ripened in confine- 

 ment. 



2. All of these seven had very soft abdomens when 

 penned. 



3. The eggs from three of these gave splendid results, 

 comparing favorably with the results obtained from eggs 

 taken from ripe fish caught in nets. 



4. The eggs from two others produced a low percent- 

 age of fry. This was disappointing, but the same thing 

 has often happened with eggs taken from fish caught 

 in nets. 



5. Two of the fish ripened and cast their eggs be- 

 tween examinations. In confinement they cast their 

 eggs within a few hours after ripening. This makes 



