110 American Fisheries Society 



the cans, which have been previously filled about half 

 full of water. A circular piece of screen wire is placed 

 on top and a jet of water turned on the can to run pend- 

 ing shipment. This arrangement is rather crude and a 

 little air mixer has been perfected which will probably 

 be installed in the near future. At the San Marcos Sta- 

 tion the fish are always counted from the tub to the buck- 

 ets before placing in cans for shipment. Two or three 

 men do the counting and another keeps the buckets filled 

 with water and empties the fish into the cans. The small, 

 square, aluminum-framed nets are used and each man 

 has a block of wood one inch square, with ten holes bored 

 on one side, a small peg fits these holes and when 100 is 

 reached in counting the peg is moved forward one place 

 so that the number may not be forgotten if the attention 

 of the one counting is called to something else. The prac- 

 tice of counting one bucket of fish and making others look 

 like it has never been in use with us and while an actual 

 count is slower than such an estimate, in my opinion, the 

 actual count is more satisfactory. If a large output of 

 statistics is desired I certainly recommend a practice 

 other than that we employ. 



The largest school of young bass that we have ever 

 caught was 32,000 No. 1 fingerlings. There is some 

 doubt in my mind as to this number being hatched on 

 one nest, but, being accompanied by a parent fish when 

 caught, and there being no other brood fish near, it is 

 possible that this great number came from a single nest, 

 but it is unusual with us to have such large schools. It 

 seems to me that some system of uniform counting should 

 be adopted at the pond cultural stations and that we 

 should rigidly adhere to the method. A great English 

 writer is quoted as saying, there are lies, there are 

 damned lies, and statistics, and possibly he could have 

 gone a step further and added there are estimates. 



A recent report of an official said it was the purpose of 

 the Bureau of Fisheries to deliver results and not statis- 

 tics and I honestly think that no pains should be spared to 

 make our output accurate. If there is a better way to 



