FOURTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 27 



which taught me that the egg of a fish should be clean and free 

 from fungus. I now except the smelt from the rule and think 

 it impossible that the embryo smelt must be protected from too 

 much oxygen and good water by a coating of decayed eggs and 

 fungus. Perhaps this is what gives the adult fish its peculiar 

 cucumber odor. 



On April 17th, we turned out in the hole below the waste flume 

 of the mill pond, near the hatchery, 20,000, and 30,000 in a small 

 spring run in the meadows of Mr. W. E. Jones, opposite tlie 

 hatchery, while later 50,000 which were ordered by Commission- 

 er Blackford to be sent to Mr. R. W. Howe, Ridgewood, Long 

 Island, escaped into our ponds by the overflow of the tanks. 

 The fish are so minute that muslin strainers were required, 

 and an extra flow of water clogged them and the tanks over- 

 flowed, so that all our 100,000 fish will get into the harbor 

 through three channels. 



I have said that the literature of srnelt hatching is meagre. 

 Mr. George Ricardo, of New Jersey, has had experience with 

 these fish for several years and has hatched some, but has pub- 

 lished nothing to guide others. A search of my library, beyond 

 which I have no knowledge of what may have been done, reveals 

 the following: 



Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission, Vol. I., p. 428 

 (1881, Charles W. Harding, King's Lynn, England, writes 

 Prof. Baird for information, wants to know if the English and 

 American smelts are identical and if the eggs are hatched in 

 fresh water, says: "Smelts spawn in this river (Ouse) from 

 April to beginning of June, and I am anxious to know if it is 

 possible to obtain the ova either from the fish direct, or from 

 the spawning ground, and hatch it out in gauze trays or troughs, 

 and whether fresh water will do, or is it necessary to have the 

 water partly salt." 



Norris, "American Fish Culture" (1868) p. 200, says that here 

 and in England the smelt has been naturalized in fresh water 

 lakes, "although an interference with their anadromous habits 

 produces generations of smaller and, perhaps less palatable 

 fish." I note the caution with which the careful Norris, whom 

 I am proud to call my old angling friend, and whose book gave 



