m 



"ing haul ten ripe females in good conditiou, and milt suffi- 

 cient to impregnate; weather cooler all day, nearly all im- 

 pregnated; the Shad were not worried nor delayed during 

 their run by gill nets, which fact probably explains their 

 good condition. 



May 31st. — Morning haul seventy-four ; six ripe females : 

 not a living egg; bottled what milt we could and preserved 

 it in spring water until returning to camp, tlien hung it in 

 well until evening. While waiting to make haul in the 

 evening, procured ripe females from a giller, also two males 

 from which obtained very little milt, used this on one lot, 

 and bottled milt on the other: a good percentage in both lots 

 impregnated. The defect of those that failed, may have 

 been in eggs or milt, or both. The experiment, hewever, 

 proved the possibility of preserving milt of Shad, or any 

 other fish, alive. In both cases eggs were taken from dead 

 fish, though caught within the hour. In one case the milt 

 was taken from a dead tish caught at the same time as the 

 female used^; in the other it was taken several hours before, 

 from a live lish, and kept in a bottle until wanted, we had 

 other females, and no milt, so took the eggs dry, and kept 

 them in an open pan until milt was obtained, in one hour 

 and a half the two pans thus treated, did better than either 

 of those referred to above; a large percentage impregnating. 

 I deem the preservation of eggs much less difficult than that 

 of milt. In both a moderately low tem})orature is favorable, 

 if not essential. No ripe females from our own haul. Eggs 

 from gillers 125,000. 



June 1st. — Morning haul took twenty-three; no ripe fe- 

 males and but few ripe males. Bottled a small amount of 

 milt. Our experience had led us to hope for little from our 

 midnight haul, so we determined to try the gillers again; 

 we found the Shad running freely and several ripe ones just 

 caught. Mr. Wroten obtained one male which he used for 

 one pan; the quantity was so small that very few eggs im- 

 pregnated. Not finding any more males, I stripped the rest 

 (if the females, and preserved the spawn in dry pans, hoping 

 to obtain milters from our regular haul. In order to avoid 

 injury to the spawn from a sudden change of temperature, the 

 air being very much colder than the water, I placed the pans 

 which were to receive it in other pans partially filled with 

 water. We were obliged to wait from 9:30 P. M. to 12:30 

 for milt. One haul yielded only forty-three fish. The ma- 

 jority females but none ripe; the milt flowed less freely than 

 was desirable, but we had to use such as we could get. The 

 results were favorable, a large percentage of the eggs develop- 

 ing. I omitted to state that the milt taken through the day 

 turned out badly, probably owing to the fact that in taking 



