AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. 



tliat any good could have come from the inside of such amass. 

 After looking the eggs over carefully, I came to the conclusion 

 that it was a possible thing that the outside eggs died because 

 they were exposed to the light, and made an attempt to get more 

 in order to test this theory, but we were unable to obtain them. 

 I had arranged to divide the next lot of eggs into two portions, 

 putting both into jars which were covered to exclude the light, 

 and give one a strong and the other a feeble circulation of 

 water to test this method, which I shall do next year if the 

 opportunity offers, for so far, our work with smelt has not proved 

 completely satisfactory. We can hatch forty or fifty per cent., 

 and as each little adult smelt has from thirty to forty thousand 

 eggs, we actually get a great number of young fish, but we don't 

 begin to get the percentages of fry that we do in operating with 

 the salmon, the trout and the whitefish. I believe that we will 

 reach this result by continued experiment; and it is one of those 

 interesting questions which stimulate a worker to try and dis- 

 cover the cause of this great mortality. 



When we remember the fact that a smelt goes up in swift 

 brooks and deposits its eggs on stones, it is hard to believe that 

 the eggs require a feeble circulation, as was suggested by my 

 friend, the late Professor Rice. I have never had the opportunity 

 to examine a stream after the smelt had finished spawning, and 

 see how the eggs are deposited in a state of nature. But the very 

 fact that a little fish bears such a great quantity of eggs within 

 it, shows that nature has provided for a great loss at some 

 portion of the life of the young, either in the egg or afterward. 

 Their exceedingly minute size when hatched, perhaps a quarter 

 of an inch in length and the diameter of a thread of No. 36 

 sewing cotton, renders them subject to be preyed upon by ex- 

 ceedingly small fishes, and an ordinary brook trout, when first 

 beginning to feed, could probably accommodate half a dozen 

 young smelts just from the egg in its stomach without incon- 

 venience to itself. The young can swim as soon as they are 

 hatched, and we confine them with brass wire cloth. No. 30 

 mesh. 



Mr. Carman, who supplies me with smelts from Brookhaven, 

 L. I., wrote on April 3rd that he had taken a few more spawners, 



