52 FISH—-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 
cannot say that this would prove injurious to the young animals, 
I did not think it desirable to try experiments in this direction. 
As the result of this labor I finally concluded to try a fine 
quality of white flannel used in strips and laid over the side of 
the vessel containing my young animals. Asa rule the pieces 
extended to the middle of the inside of the vessel, and I found 
by carefully manipulating these strips as to position and size, 
that the breeding vessel would be practically self-regulating, 
since the nearer the liquid was to the top of the vessel, the 
greater the flow of water on account of the less distance it would 
have to be raised by capillary attraction. But by having my 
outlet strip freely suspended in the liquid, the absorbing surface 
extended throughout its whole length, or at least of that portion 
in the hatching vessel, and hence the young animals might be 
drawn against the flannel and either killed or carried over from 
mesh to mesh. To prevent this, I introduced a small lamp chim- 
ney of the Argand pattern and placed my flannel upon the inside 
of this. The end of the lamp chimney resting upon the bottom . 
of the vessel allowed water to pass out only by going in at the 
bottom of the chimney, working up the flannel and so out at the 
top. In this manner no young oyster could get into the current 
of outflowing water, or into the meshes of the flannel except 
those few that might be directly under the end of the chimney. 
The inflow of water was arranged in a similar manner but with- 
out the chimney, simply allowing the piece of flannel to pass 
over from a supply tank into the breeding vessel. 
As a whole, my apparatus then consisted of two vessels, two 
strips of flannel and a lamp chimney. The large vessel or sup- 
ply reservoir was kept full of sea water; from this a strip of 
flannel passed over and down to the small breeding-vessel, keep- 
ing it full and constantly supplied with fresh water so long as the 
reservoir was well supplied. The chimney was placed upon the 
opposite side of the breeding vessel from the entrance or inlet 
strip, and the second piece of flannel passed from it out and over 
the side of the vessel, allowing the overflow to take place into a 
waste tank placed some distance below the apparatus. 
With this arrangement and with strips of flannel about three 
inches in width, I found that I could pass about two gallons of 
