FOURTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 25 



waslied off, refusing to stick in bunches, as on grass. The con- 

 sequence was that the stones were covered with eggs only one 

 layer deep. Three days after this they looked well, but in a week 

 were all dead, though no fungus had formed. He tried again 

 on March 8th, by taking about 70,000 eggs by the dry method on 

 tiles, letting them stand five minutes before adding water, and 

 then placed them in one of the hatching troughs. On the i6th 

 one-half were dead, and on the 24th they were covered with 

 fungus. On April 7th there had been no change, the eggs under- 

 neath the fungus were bright and good, but he went away the 

 next day and did not return until the 12th, when he found the 

 trough empty. The other attendants pronounced them dead 

 and threw them away. Neither of us saw them on the last day, and 

 we do not feel certain that they were dead, for our experience 

 this year tells us that it requires an expert to judge of this. A 

 mass of smelt eggs all rotten on the outside and covered with 

 fungus half an inch long, should be given the benefit of all 

 doubts, and be carefully examined before condemnation. 



On March 9th, we obtained 100 more fish which had been taken 

 in seines. The first lot were so badly injured by gill-nets that 

 they were covered with fungus in a few days. On the 12th we 

 got 70,000 eggs on tiles and stones, taken in water, and placed 

 them in a trough which receives the flow from nine hatching 

 troughs, and is consequently carrying a swift current. These eggs 

 were evenly distributed over the tiles and stones several deep, 

 and did not flow off as in previous cases. Not until March 22nd' 

 eleven days after, did we see any dead eggs or fungus. At five 

 days old we could seethe formation of the embryo with a micro- 

 scope, and at fifteen days the fish could be seen with the un- 

 assisted eye. At this time fungus had spread all over the out- 

 side eggs, but underneath there were but few dead ones. On 

 April 6th, when the eggs were twenty-six days old, they were 

 placed in the glass tanks with a flow from above, and a siphon 

 outlet, and four days later began hatching fast, and two days 

 after we had 11,000 fish, all that we obtained, the temperature 

 varying from 37 to 58 degrees, and the time thirty days. The 

 water in all these experiments was pure spring w^ater. 



The last trial was in .the McDonald hatching jars and was the 



