REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 27 
8, 1891, 300 died from the effects of slush ice, which formed inside the 
live-cars from snow that fell between the wooden slats. - Besides having 
their gills choked up, many were found to contain in their stomachs 
lumps of ice as large as walnuts. Less blindness occurred, probably 
on account of greater care in handling the fish at the time of their cap- 
ture, a feature being the avoidance of the usual custom of thrusting a 
finger into the eye socket of the fish when removing the hook. 
Of the brood fish only 587 yielded eggs, these being 67,599,000 in 
number and producing 56,266,100 fry. Eggs were stripped about every 
other day, from November 17 to February 7. 
Consignments of eggs, by rail, were received from Gloucester Station 
to the number of 43,168,500, from December 16 to January 19, but of 
these only 16,332,000 were thought to be good twelve hours subsequent 
to arrival, and their total production was but 150,000 fry. 
Observations during hatching this year led to the conclusion that 
those eggs which sink within five or six days after being taken are 
defective in their fertilization. The results of attempts made at im- 
pregnation by the dry method, though not conclusive, were unsatis- 
factory. The eggs that sunk were transferred from jars to boxes, and 
vice versa, and close attention given them. Those placed in jars would 
in a short time become milky and glutinous and so foul that cleansing by 
washing was impracticable; while those in boxes, without turning milky, 
would adhere together and to the hatching vessels, finally perishing. 
The profuse abundance of copepods in the hatching vessels through- 
out the season was thought to be injurious to the eggs and fry, since 
they were seen densely congregated about dead eggs and the weaker 
fry, and were in constant friction with the live eggs and fry in their 
crowded condition. Attempts to exclude them by means of cheese- 
cloth strainers were ineffectual, owing to their minuteness. Another 
unfavorable element was the employment of hatching boxes which had 
been used during the summer preceding for the live storage of meduse 
and other low forms of animal life which exude slime and poisonous 
substances. It was found that eggs kept in the boxes which had been 
used for this purpose were invariably attended with a high death rate, 
butif early removed to other vessels they immediately recovered. Vig- 
orous efforts to cleanse the infected boxes failed. 
Hatching was one to three days earlier in the tidal boxes than in the 
inverted tidal jars, owing, presumably, to the greater circulation and 
light afforded the eggs. The fry produced were liberated in neighbor- 
ing waters when they were 12 to 48 hours old. — 
Flatfish—Adult flatfish to the number of 71 were taken with a fyke 
net in Woods Holl Harbor and yielded 4,689,700 eggs, which produced 
3,350,800 fry. The spawning period of the flatfish was between Ieb- 
ruary 3 and March 7. 
