FISH-CULTURAL PRACTICES IN THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 743 



advantage of making a comparatively light package — a factor of great economic 

 importance in transportation. The outside case may be an ordinary box of 

 suitable dimensions. In it are packed, surrounded by moss, several boxes made 

 of 3's-inch boards, and usually 12 inches wide by 15 inches long by 3>^ inches 

 deep, each box containing a mass of 10,000 to 20,000 eggs in mosquito netting, 

 with moss around all sides. No ice is used, care being taken that the packing 

 be done in a temperature below 50°, that all packing material be kept in a 

 place slightly below freezing point, and that the moss in which the eggs are 

 packed be sprinkled with snow. This method of packing is an economical one 

 for shipments of eggs of Salmonidae during cold weather, but can not advan- 

 tageously be used for eggs of spring spawning fishes unless there is available a 

 cold-storage room in which to do the packing. Recently the superintendent of 

 the Baker Lake (Wash.) station, who has had occasion to ship eggs of steelhead 

 trout and Pacific salmon in warm weather, has packed them in light cases with 

 alternate layers of moss, and then placed two tiers of these thin cases side by 

 side in an outer case with a large hopper of ice over the whole, the drip passing 

 down between the two tiers of inner cases. The chief advantage of this case 

 for long-distance shipments is in the fact that less ice is required than in other 

 forms of cases using ice, with a consequent saving in transportation charges. It 

 can also be used in warm as well as cold weather. It is believed it will be 

 economy to extend the use of this case in packing eggs of other species of 

 Salmonidae. 



Green eggs of the brook trout and chars are carried in spawning pans or 

 buckets, the spawntakers sometimes, by the use of a neck yoke, carrying two 

 pails of trout eggs several miles. It is possible to ship the green eggs a half 

 day's journey without serious loss, but it is preferable to eye them at places 

 convenient to the traps where the parent fish are caught, after which they are 

 packed by the ordinary method. 



For grayling eggs cheese cloth is used for the bottoms of the trays instead 

 of canton flannel and it is preferred by some in packing other kinds of eggs 

 because it permits of a better circulation of air and is not so apt to hold water. 

 No moss is used on the trays over the eggs, but only mosquito netting, as the 

 eggs will not stand pressure. Both the hopper and the chambers around the 

 tray stack are kept filled with ice, thus maintaining in warm weather a tem- 

 perature of about 40° F. 



In transferring by messenger large numbers of eggs, whether green or eyed, 

 of any species, it is customary to omit the packing on and around the trays, ice 

 being used to regulate the temperature. 



Eggs of the shad and other species of which the period of incubation is but 

 a few days are usually shipped within forty-eight hours after being collected. 

 Shad eggs are seldom shipped for more than a few hours' travel. For this 



