AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. 



Tlie Chair would state, also, that we have information that 

 other papers which have not yet been received will be here in 

 time for to-morrow's meeting, and such papers as are ready can 

 be read this afternoon, and a discussion had upon them after the 

 rea'ding, and then we may adjourn until to-morrow, when we 

 probably shall have a larger number present, and at the same 

 time have more papers than we have had time to read to-day. 

 The reading of papers is now in order, unless some gentleman 

 has other business to propose. 



The first paper which will be read will be on " The Hatching 

 of Smelts," by Mr. Mather. 



Mr. Mather. — I would state that my first experiments in re- 

 gard to the smelt appeared in the report of last year, and that 

 very little has ever been done in smelt hatching. Professor 

 Rice and Mr. Atkins have both made some experiments, but 

 not on a large scale. Both succeeded to a limited extent, as 

 I have. This year we had between two and three millions of 

 eggs and may possibly be able to turn out a million of young 

 fish. 



SMELT HATCHING. 



BY FRED MATHER. 



At the last meeting of this Society I read a paper on " Hatch- 

 ing Smelt," giving the details of my first experiments, and stat- 

 ing at the same time that but little had been done with the eggs 

 of this fish and that the literature of its culture was very limited, 

 I have continued these experiments the present year and have 

 but little to add to what I have before said. The eggs of the 

 smelt are the most unsatisfactory of any fish eggs I have ever 

 handled. Tlieir glutinous character and small size forbids the 

 separation of the dead from the living by the automatic jars or 

 by hand picking, consequently they decay and become foul. 



We have this year at the Cold Spring Harbor station of the 



