HOW TO SHIP FISH EGGS. 75 



and skill in packing them, and also judgment and 

 experience to determine when the eggs are in the 

 proper condition for the trip. The eggs must also 

 be packed so as to maintain as even a temperature 

 as possible, and withstand the jars incident to rail- 

 way and steamship travel. A few degrees of heat 

 or' cold are liable to affect them, and a sudden jar, 

 such, for example, as the dropping of the package, 

 would be almost certain to result in the death of 

 all the eggs. 



The temperature of the eggs should remain as 

 near that of the water out of which they were taken 

 as possible. The ova best able to stand transpor- 

 tation are of fish belonging to the salmon family, 

 viz., the salmon, speckled trout, salmon trout or 

 lake trout, land-locked salmon, and the like. 

 The eggs of the white fish also stand transportation 

 well. This ability to stand transportation is chiefly 

 from the fact that they are fall spawning fish and 

 require a long period for hatching. This period 

 varies from seventy to one hundred and thirty-five 

 or one hundred and forty days, according to the 

 temperature of the water ; while the eggs of spring 

 spawning fish, as shad, herring, pike, bass, etc., 

 require only from three to ten days, the tempera- 

 ture of the water also affecting them. The warmer 

 it is, the sooner they hatch. 



Probably the best way to pack fish spawn in 

 quantities not exceeding ten thousand, to be sent 

 by express, is in small round tin boxes, in the fol- 

 lowing manner : The boxes are about three inches 

 wide and two and one-half inches deep. A few 

 small holes are punched in the bottom to let the 



