American Fisheries Society 159 



There is just enough water around the eggs on the plate to 

 afford a thorough inspection, although they are moving, the 

 opaque discoloration being discerned with definiteness. But 

 this is not all. By moving the tube and its washer up and 

 down, by a gentle shaking motion, the outward passage of 

 water and eggs is arrested at will, and an altogether satisfac- 

 tory examination is entirely practicable. One person can 

 look after a half-dozen of these tubes at one time and be free 

 from anxiety as to the loss of good eggs, and if he is needed 

 elsewhere he slips all tubes out and walks away, knowing 

 that not another egg will pass until he reinserts the tubes. I 

 accord the credit of this new and fascinating method to \lv. 

 Wm. W. Spears, who has for a number of years been tem- 

 porarily employed at Weldon. I had expected to use a 

 siphon, of rubber and glass tubing united, but one of which, 

 however, could have been operated at a time by one persc^n. 



If the foregoing methods of transferring fry from jar to 

 fry tank and of removing dead eggs from jars can be applied 

 to shad work, we shall witness the discarding of all jar exit 

 tubes, both glass and rubber, at one stroke. The adoption 

 of these methods would, of course, imply the using of the 

 modified jar here described for striped bass hatching, \iz, tlie 

 jar with the fry escape through its side and through the 

 7/16-inch jar tubing. I think that these methods are cer- 

 tainly applicable to shad operations, but their adoption in 

 that branch does not imply the discarding of the metal 

 screens in fry tanks. Jars properly fitted for such work 

 should, of course, be moulded with the side opening in them, 

 for the drilling of the glass invites breakage. 



At Weldon last spring 22 fish were stripped, i)roducing 

 11,336,000 eggs, an average of 530,000, the weight of fish 

 averaging 16 pounds and ranging from 5 to 50 pounds each. 

 Eleven ripe fish were unstripped by inadvertence of fisher- 

 men. Each of the 22 lots of eggs produced more or less fr)-. 

 All eggs were taken, fertilized, and delivered by the fisher- 

 men unaided, and paid for at the rate of $20 per million. 



