REPORT OP COMMISSIONER OP PISH AND FISHERIES. CXLI 



riorate. Thus, the experiments showed that after milt had been in 

 water 1 minute it fertilized 19 per cent of the eggs treated ; after a 

 lapse of 3£ minutes, only 9 per cent were fertilized; after 6 minutes, 8 

 percent; after 8 A minutes, 2 per cent; and after II minutes, 2 per cent, 

 no fertilization occurring after a longer interval. 



It occasionally happens that a fish is injured before spawning, and 

 when the eggs are pressed out they are mixed with more or less 

 blood. Eggs from three such fishes were selected, in order to ascer- 

 tain the percentage of fertilization. About 8 per cent of them died 

 within 5 days, and of the remainder, 2 per cent were unfertilized. 

 This is not very different from the average results under normal con- 

 ditions. Of several lots of bloody eggs taken from stripped fish, 89 per 

 cent were fertilized. In the passage of eggs through the oviduct the 

 natural liquids of the part often become foamy. It was not known 

 whether such eggs were fertilizable, but tests showed that this con- 

 dition did not impair the susceptibility of the egg to the action of the 

 milt. The slime from fishes is thought by some fish-culturists to be 

 fatal to spermatozoa; some eggs were thoroughly mixed with slime 

 and then treated with milt in the usual way; less than 2 per cent 

 were unfertilized. 



The question of killing the female salmon before attempting to take 

 the eggs received some consideration. Stripping the female is very 

 hard work, requiring the services of three men, one to hold the head 

 and one the tail, while the third expresses the eggs. Even when the fish 

 is ripe, a man's entire strength is often required to force the eggs 

 through the oviduct. Many good eggs are necessarily left in the fish 

 and thus lost. In 21 stripped salmon examined with this point in view, 

 there were found on an average 700 ripe eggs, or about 14 per cent of 

 the total average production per fish. It had been claimed by some fish- 

 culturists that eggs from fish killed before spawning would produce 

 deformed fry, but this was shown by experiments to be erroneous. In 

 view of the foregoing experiments and the additional fact that these 

 fish die after spawning, there would seem to be good reasons for killing 

 or stunning them by a blow on the head and for removing the eggs 

 through an artificial opening in the abdominal wall. 



It is well known that at certain ages eggs are much more delicate 

 than at other times. These critical periods are when the eye-spots first 

 appear (ninth to fifteenth day) and just before hatching. When first 

 taken, eggs may be handled comparatively roughly with impunity. The 

 spawning-place at Battle Creek is 1£ miles from the hatchery, the eggs 

 being hauled that distance in wagons over a rather uneven road without 

 any injury. Nearly 700,000 eggs 43 days old were sent from Battle 

 Creek to Olema; they were first taken 10 miles in a heavy wagon, and 

 were then carried on a railroad train 15 hours, being out of the water 

 48 hours; the loss in transit was only 300 eggs. At other times such 

 treatment would kill almost every egg, the simple turning of the eggs 

 with a feather often causing a large loss. In one experiment 120,000 



