86 AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. 



for the waters near the Adirondack hatchery, either in Saranacs 

 or in Lake Brandon, formerly known as Little Clear pond, now 

 set apart for the State hatchery, on whose outlet it is located. 

 Tile hatchiny; season has been exceptionally good, and the losses 

 of eggs and fry have been down to the minimum. The work at 

 the station was (knie by two men and myself, until in February 

 we were reinforced by Mr. F. A. Walters, superintendent of the 

 Adirondack hatchery, who in former years had been my fore- 

 man, but wiio by an accident to the dam at the hatchery under 

 his charge was relieved from duty there for tiie present. Last 

 fall some new ponds were made ; the only ones which were 

 there when the State took possession, were drained and quanti- 

 ties of eels taken from them, which, do doubt, destroyed many 

 fry in former years. A fence has been put around the place and 

 the grounds greatly improved. A new hatchery is really needed, 

 as the two buildings now used for this purpose are not only 

 small but so decayed as to be ready to tumble dowm. The men 

 have worked in these buildings with six inches of ice under 

 their feet, and at times with water freezing within ten feet of a 

 red hot stove, and while ice has occasionly formed to the depth 

 of a quarter of an inch in the hatching troughs it has done no 

 damage there. But the two-inch iron pipes which convey the 

 salt water to the jars did freeze and the flow was stopped. Tlie 

 eggs of the cod being so light that they would not bear a strong 

 current, consequently the fiow had to be shut down to a very 

 small quantity, and all froze, as did some small Englisli soles 

 also. 



The station, with these advantages of fresh and salt water, 

 could be made, with a proper expenditure of money, the most 

 important one in the United States. Its flow of fresh water is 

 not anything like as great as at some other stations, but the 

 height from which this water is taken — some forty feet above 

 the hatchery, renders it possible to use the water over many 

 times — in fact, we do so now. The brick building on the hill, 

 in which there are twelve troughs with a capacity for^ 30,000 

 salmon each, receives the water first ; it then fiows into a little 

 pool, where egs^ shells and dirt may settle, and is conveyed on 

 the upper floor of the main hatchery, in which there are eleven 



