kept dying off, going blind, and developing thyroid tumor until we 

 had but eight fish left. The first to become sexually mature was 

 a male in the fall of 1902 at the age of four years and eight months. 

 The following fall we had three ripe males and two females with 

 developed eggs. Of the three remaining breeders two had turned 

 black from blindness and the other degenerated into a "racer." The 

 ripe males and females were placed in separate raceways for daily 

 observation, and on November 2nd one of the females had every 

 appearance of being ready for stripping. The eggs had loosened 

 and the fish had that soft, flabby feeling that denotes ripeness to 

 the experienced spawntaker. None of the males seemed very ripe, 

 but after extracting a few drops from each into the pan. a female 

 was picked up in the expectation that the eggs would flow freely. 

 Efforts were unavailing for even considerable pressure would not 

 start them and rather than take chances of injury, the fish was put 

 back for the next day, although it was known that the eggs should 

 come out. The following day the abdomen of this fish had dis- 

 tended and had the hard, firm feeling of over-retention, while the 

 other female's eggs had loosened and dropped down. Again no eggs 

 could be obtained from either fish, although they were unquestionably 

 ripe. 



It was then decided that the difficulty was in the ovipore, and 

 that this opening was not of sufficient size to permit the free pas- 

 sage of the eggs. Casting around for some means of getting out 

 these eggs v/ithout injury to the fish, there was finally conceived a 

 method of enlarging the genital pore without rupturing the delicate 

 membranous wall surrounding it. A common medicine dropper — 

 one drawn out to a very small and smooth point — was filled with 

 warm water and carefully introduced into the ovipore, working it 

 in slowly to its largest diameter. After remaining a few seconds, 

 it was removed, and to our great satisfaction the eggs flowed as 

 freely as from a ripe brook trout. Whether the warm water in the 

 dropper had a relaxing effect on the muscles, or whether the action 

 was purely mechanical in its stretching of the tissue, was not then 

 and has not since been determined ; but many hundreds of later ex- 

 periments in the use of this improvised speculum has shown that 

 better and less injurious results are secured, if the dropper is first 

 filled with fairly warm water. 



The majority of the eggs from both females were taken at this 

 first stripping, and the remainder in a few days following, without 

 again having to resort to the use of the dropper. From these two fish 

 2,106 very inferior looking eggs were taken. A great many of 



49 



