86 TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL MEETING 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE MORTALITY AMONG TROUT 



FRY AT THE ALLENTOWN HATCHING STA= 



TION THROUGH LONG INBREEDING. 



BY W. E. MEEHAN. 



On the twentv-flftli of February of the present year, the 

 Pennsylvania Fish Commission had in its troughs at the east- 

 ern hatching station, near Allentown, 2,200,000 brook trout 

 fry, 30,000 California trout fry, 8.000 brown trout fry. and 250,- 

 000 Atlantic salmon fry. Within two weeks thereafter the 

 entire lot of little fish, except the Atlantic salmon, were all 

 dead. To the superficial observer, the fry were in normal con- 

 dition of health on the first of Fel)ruary, but to the practiced 

 eye of the Superintendent all was not right with them from 

 the time of hatching, although not alarming enough to make 

 a formal report to me as the State Statistician of Fisheries. 



When February was about half gone^, the State was visited 

 by a terrific blizzard, such as had not been experienced for 

 many years. During it the far end of the low^er hatching house 

 was hove up about three and one-half inches by the frost. This 

 caused the water in the liatchiug troughs to rise and back even 

 to the farther troughs of the upper house. By the time this 

 was discovered and the flow-cocks regulated, a thaw set in 

 and the lower house sank back nearly to its original position, 

 and disarranged the proper water supply again. 



Almost immediately on the disarrangement of the water 

 supply the disaster began. All the fry except the salmon 

 l)egan to huddle at the upper end of the troughs about the 

 inflow and to exhibit marked signs of distress. A week later 

 the Atlantic salmon fyj and about ten thousand wild trout 

 showed some similar signs. In each trough were from twelve 

 to fifteen thousand trout, and these crowded themselves in a 

 ispace of a little more than a foot and a half square. Nothing 

 could disperse them. A feather or the hand thrust among 

 them would simply turn the little creatures over and over 

 without resistance on their part. Within a few days they 

 began dving at the rate of from one hundred thousand to over 



