238 Modern Fishculture in Fresh and Salt Water. 



eggs out of the jars and put them in tubs filled with 

 muddy water. We stirred them in the tubs for sev- 

 eral minutes and returned them to the jars. To our 

 great delight, the experiment was completely success- 

 ful ; and from that day to this we have had no trouble 

 in preventing these eggs from sticking or bunching. 



The wall-eyed pike is a fish which will not stand 

 much confinement. If they are kept in the crates more 

 than three days before the time to spawn, the eggs will 

 begin to bunch in the fish and will not loosen up; or 

 the tail of the fish will become fungused and the fish 

 will soon die. When we see a white spot back of the 

 second dorsal fin we at once liberate the fish. 



I have been engaged in the work of fishculture for 

 twenty-seven years, but until last spring it remained 

 for me to see these fish in the act of spawning natur- 

 ally. It was during high water ; the stream had over- 

 flowed its banks and they were scattered over the 

 marshy land adjoining. I stood on a railroad trestle- 

 work for an hour and watched hundreds of them in 

 the act of spawning. The female would roll over and 

 over constantly during the time she threw her eggs, 

 while from two to five small male fish gathered around 

 her and gave off milt as the eggs came from the fe- 

 male. I have often heard men say that the time to go 

 spearing with a jack-light was when the fish were 

 rolling or bunching, as they could then get two or 

 three fish at a throw. I can now fully understand the 

 significance of the statement. 



I use the Chase hatching jar for hatching these 

 fish. The term of incubation varies with the tem- 

 perature of the water used in the jars. In water of 

 60 the eggs will hatch in about fifteen days ; in water 

 9f a temperature of 48 it requires thirty-five days to 



