Other Fresh-Water Fishes With Free Eggs. 199 



beef, fish and liver in the water, but to no purpose. My 

 diary of losses shows the following : August 5th, 9 ; 

 6th, 200; 7th, 1,000 ; 8th, 20; 9th, 100; loth, 3,000; 

 nth, 500; I2th, 1,200; i3th, 5,000; I4th, the whole lot 

 of about 90,000. We had hopes of pulling them through 

 until the I2th, when they were eight days old, and we 

 could see they were weakening. We were at South- 

 ampton when the last fish died, but went on to Berlin 

 and reported. If we could have planted them in the 

 Weser on the I2th it would have looked like a success, 

 but I think the fry were then too weak to take food. 



THE BELL AND MATHER HATCHING CONE. 



At the beginning of the shad season on the Delaware 

 in 1875 Prof. Baird asked me if, in my opinion, shad 

 fry could be taken to Germany. My answer was : "Yes ; 

 if we can hatch them en route, and delay the hatching 

 from four to eight days, and so get the fry there before 

 they are enfeebled by starvation; but we don't know 

 how long shad eggs may be retarded, as no one has 

 experimented in that direction, and as they spawn on a 

 rising temperature, it is evident that we cannot ice them 

 as heavily as we can the eggs of Salmonidce." 



The professor gave the matter a moment's thought, 

 and asked : "Would you like to experiment on this 

 line and try it again, if you believe you can retard the 

 hatching and get the fry safely over?" 



Then it was settled that I should try it in my own 

 way, and I began in the basement of the Smithsonian 

 Institution with the arrangement here figured. 



Fig. i is the experimental "hatcher." A is the reser- 

 voir furnished with a cock B, bv which the flow 



