88 TJiirty-iiiiilh Annual Meeting 



a ijortion of licr egi^s — for it (lex'eloped that all were not 

 entirely ripe. The eg"gs were fertilized 1)_\' the dry method. 

 They were extremely ghitinons and numl)ered about 1,000. 

 Placed in the jar without ha\ing been first cleaned, the result 

 was that most of them fungussed and onl\' three or four 

 hatched. 



The second ripe female sturgeon was found on A])ril LSih. 

 She was about 2'- feet long and like the first fisli did not 

 ha\e all her eggs ripe. As on the first occasion there were 

 several ripe males, ddie eggs were fertilized as before by the 

 dry method, but immediately after were placed in a pan of 

 nuick and water and had to be stirred for more than lwo 

 hours ])efore the}- were thoroughly separated. They are ex- 

 tremely glutinous, and although they were extruded easily 

 they issued in small launches. After the}' had been worked 

 sufficiently iu the muck and water, they were washed thor- 

 oughly and found to be non-adhesixe unless allowed to lie 

 (|uieth' on each other for some length of time. An examina- 

 tion under the microscope show^ed them to be covered with 

 ])rotuberances not unlike the spokes on iron jackstraws. 



After having been thoroughl}' cleansed, the eggs to the 

 numl)er of 6,000 W'ere placed in a jar and water turned on 

 to the amount of about one gallon a minute. Imtu this would 

 not have been sufficient to move the eggs l)ut that it was run 

 in from the second trough above the jar. 



ddie eggs when |)laced on the battery were of a brown color 

 for about one-half their circumference and a grayish white 

 the other, and during the whole period of incubation there 

 was \er\' little change in the hue. On this account it was dif- 

 ticu.lt to watch the development of the eml)ryo, or to distin- 

 guish the good from the l)ad eggs, \\dien placed on the bat- 

 ter\' the water temperature was -18 degrees Farenheit, and 

 during the period of inculcation it \aried between 46 and 54. 

 The eggs hatched on the 2()th of A])ril, 13 da}S after fertili- 

 zation, ddie water temperatures from da\' to da}- \\-ere as 

 follows: .\pril 13, 48; 14tli. 4h : 15ih, 48; Unh, 50; 17th, 



