American Fisheries Society. 63 
it was found that these eggs were covered with very fine sand, and 
they were therefore placed in floating boxes anchored in the 
river. From the five females on hand 1,500,000 eggs were se- 
cured, and the entire lot was held in the floating boxes. 
During the first 24 hours they all presented a fine appear- 
ance, and, although in bunches of varying sizes, it seemed that a 
fair percentage of them might be hatched. This hope was dis- 
pelled on the following morning when it was known that fungus 
had already attacked the entire lot. It was practically impossi- 
ble to do anything to save them, as they were lke so many 
bunches of half dried glue. By June 3rd every egg was dead, 
and they were all dumped into the river. 
After handling these sturgeon eggs, it is almost incredible to 
me that they can be permanently separated and made to work in 
jars, like pike perch and whitefish eggs, as was done by Mr. 
Stone in his work with the sturgeon several years ago. A num- 
ber of the ordinary Macdonald jars were on hand for use in this 
way, but owing to the poor quality and insufficient quantity of 
the only available water supply they were not brought into ser- 
vice. ‘The eggs from one of the large sturgeon were stripped 
into a wooden pail, and, after being thoroughly milted, were 
stirred with the hand continuously for forty minutes. As long 
as the eggs were agitated in this manner they remained separate, 
but when water was added and they were “washed up” the ex- 
pected adhesion took place, and when allowed to sink to the bot- 
tom of the bucket they immediately formed into a mass. This 
mass could, of course, be broken up into small bunches, but many 
eggs were ruptured in the process. It may be possible that could 
the eggs have been placed directly in the jars in the milt, their 
separation might have been accomplished. This is one of the 
methods that it is hoped can be tried another year. 
When stripping the above lot of eggs, it was noticed that 
when they flowed over the sides of the bucket they adhered most 
tenaciously, and in a single compact layer. It was later found 
impossible to remove these with a strong stream of water from 
an ordinary garden hose. I therefore believe that as the eggs 
flow from the fish they can be made to pass over thin boards, then 
milted, and afterwards held in some wire mesh receptacle in a 
swift current of water. 
