Ti 
IMPROVED METHOD OF HATCHING SMELTS. 
BY FRED. MATHER, 
Outside of my own articles on smelt hatching in the 
fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth Reports of this 
Society, I can find nothing on the subject except an 
itemun the paper of the late Prow i. |. Rica on “Salt 
asan Agent for the Destruction of the Fish Fungus” in 
the thirteenth Report. On page 19 Professor Rice 
records that in 1877 he was studying the embryology of 
the smelt and found the eggs in masses in the hatching 
jars and covered with fungus, but not until 1884 did he 
have a chance to try the effect of salt on killing this 
Saprolegnia. The eggs were upon blades of sedge, 
or water grass, after the manner employed by Mr. 
Charles G. Atkins some years before, which “prevents 
to a great extent, if not entirely, the massing together 
of the eggs, since the rough surface of the blades allow 
only a single layer, at most, to adhere to the surface.” 
Still there was much fungus present. The salt killed 
the fungus and “only about five per cent. of the whole 
number failed to hatch.” This is a much _ better 
percentage than I can show to-day, and I do not know 
of any other fishculturist who has hatched this fish 
within the past five years. Professor Rice did not do 
the hatching but merely studied the development of the 
embryos and took the statements of others regarding 
the percentage; and the latter need salt, also 
In the fourteenth report of this Society, for 1885, 
pages 17 to 32, will be found my first paper on this 
subject, with discussions following it by Hon. Theodore 
Lyman and Prof. Rice. My paper was entitled 
