104 American Fisheries Society 



and the fish were allowed to stand for the remainder of 

 the day, being bailed regularly. At 4:30 P. M. the fish 

 were again placed under running water for the night. At 

 9 :00 A. M. next day 35 dead were remove dand the spring 

 water then renewed in the can. At the same time another 

 lot of top minnows, numbering 200, were counted into a 

 ten-gallon can half-filled with water, obtained from the 

 rearing pond, temperature of water 65 degrees, and these 

 fish, together with those formerly experimented with, 

 were allowed to stand for 24 hours without a change of 

 water and were bailed twice during this time, the tem- 

 perature varying eight degrees, from 65 to 73. At the 

 expiration of this time lot No. 1 was examined and a 

 majority of the fish were found dead. Lot No. 2 was ob- 

 served to have incurred a loss of one top minnow. The 

 following deductions were made from this experiment: 

 That top minnows are very susceptible to a sudden lower- 

 ing of temperature and that they can not adjust them- 

 selves to such a change in a reasonable length of time, and 

 that if they are to be transferred any distance or held for 

 any length of time, the water from which these fish are 

 seined should be used for the purpose. Also, that a rise in 

 temperature does not affect the fish correspondingly." In 

 this test reported by Mr. Gill, I believe the mortality of 

 the minnows was due more to the superaeration of the 

 water than to the change of temperature. 



On Tuesday morning, October 10th, three ten-gallon 

 cans of top minnows, of 200 each, were placed on the of- 

 fice platform. One can received no attention ; the water 

 in the second can was aerated at intervals for the balance 

 of the day ; the temperature of the water in the third can 

 was reduced from 67 to 55 degrees, the lowering of the 

 temperature being accomplished slowly by adding pieces 

 of ice. Tuesday night the three lots of fish were in good 

 condition and were left standing for the night without 

 any further attention. The following morning these 

 three cans, without any change of water, formed part of 

 a shipment of 15 cans of top minnows which I took from 

 the Cold Spring station to Augusta, Ga. They were in 



