THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 211 
The station was provided with five experts, a force rather 
too small, though efficient. During a period of ten days from 
May 14th to 24th, nine rock-fish in spawning condition were 
secured. 
Four of these were sold on the market before the hatchery 
was ready, and the eggs were lost. They were observed, how- 
ever, to contain ripe eggs. Five others were captured and 
handled by my force subsequent to the establishment of the 
hatchery. 
One of these weighed thirty-four pounds twelve ounces, but 
being dead and stiff before it was found, the eggs were not 
available for impregnation, so I used it for the purpose of de- 
termining as near as possible the relative number of eggs con- 
tained in this species. A fraction of an ounce was carefully 
weighed out on apothecary’s scales by a young druggist who 
chanced to be in my corps, and a computation was made of the 
number of eggs, and 3,194,000 were found. The two ovaries were 
packed in ice and sent to Prof. Baird for more careful calcula- 
tion. They are in his possession and are preserved in alcohol. 
The total weight of these ovaries at the time the calculation was 
made was seven pounds nine ounces. 
However many the exact number may be, it is evident that the 
average rockfish produces upward of 1,000,000 of eggs. 
Four other fishes in spawning condition were taken, one on 
the 17th, weighing 12 pounds, two-thirds spent, yielded 250,000 
eggs, another taken on the r8th, weighing 8 pounds, two-thirds 
spent, contained 280,000 eggs. The eggs from the last named 
fish, when impregnated, measured 14 U. S. standard liquid 
quarts, and in the ovaries which I dissected afterward, were re- 
maining 4 ounces unimpregnated eggs. These latter I considered 
about 100,000 in number, showing that this fish of 8 pounds 
weight, contained upward of 1,200,000 eggs. 
The result of the crude operations at Weldon, produced some- 
thing like 1,000,000 of eggs from the four fish stripped (these 
being mostly spent), from which a very moderate number of fish 
—50,ooo—were hatched and turned into Roanoke river; speci- 
mens being sent to Prof. Baird in glycerine, 
The only difficulties encountered were two, the one consisting 
