62 Thirty-Third Annual Meeting 
little consequence, and the fish were none the worse, so far as 
could be seen, when they were liberated from the pens three to 
six days later. 
Of the sturgeons captured in this manner, ten were males 
averaging about thirty-five pounds, and the other five were 
females of 85, 100, 125, 140 and 150 pounds—estimated weights. 
As it was known that the eggs are thrown by the ripe female 
sturgeon as soon as she is lifted from the water, a suitable plug 
was designed and fastened to the fish as soon as captured. ‘This 
gave very good satisfaction. It consisted of an ordinary rubber 
nipple; a piece of heavy belting leather six inches long, four 
and a half inches wide at the broad end and tapering to two 
inches with rounded corners; and a piece of elastic suspender- 
webbing two inches wide and of suitable length. The large end 
of the nipple is sewed, in an upright position, in the center of 
the widest part of the piece of leather and forms the plug. ‘Two 
slits, a quarter of an inch apart are cut on each side of the nip- 
ple, and under the strips of leather thus formed is drawn the 
webbing which is passed around the body of the fish to hold the 
plug in position, an ordinary adjustable suspender buckle being 
used in connection with this girdle. ‘The smaller end of the 
leather back is held well forward by means of a soft laid nen 
thread, which is tied around the sturgeon’s body just ahead of the 
ventral fins. This is to prevent the plug from shpping back 
toward the tail, which it would otherwise do owing to the taper- 
ing of the body. 
Tt was our good fortune this year not to secure a female that 
was ripe at the time of capture, but had we done this it would 
have been necessary to plug the vent temporarily with a piece of 
cloth, as the rubber plug could only be inserted to advantage 
when the fish is in a straight jacket. 
In the morning of May 29th it was discovered that one of 
the large females had rubbed off the plug, and had ejected the 
larger portion of her eggs. (Note: Tape instead of linen thread 
used, ete.). She was immediately placed in a straight jacket 
and the balance of her eggs secured. These were milted and 
allowed to stand in the bucket, in the milt, for 30 minutes, when 
they were washed up and a stream of running water from a near- 
by brook flowed over them. In the afternoon of the same day 

