REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 51 
days over two millions, and on three days over three millions. The 
water in the vicinity of the station was so extraordinarily clear that 
seines could be hauled with any advantage at night only; operations 
were therefore suspended the first week in May, one month earlier than 
customary, with one-half the usual catch, the catch by gill fishermen 
being about two-thirds. 
The attendance of the spawn-takers was on 49,600 fathoms of seine 
and 224,700 fathoms of gill net, which afforded 35,200 adult shad for 
examination, about equally divided between the two classes of nets. 
The number of fish stripped was 2,013. 
The average water temperature during the last fifteen days in April 
was 60.8° F., during the month of May 62.1°, and the first nine days 
in June 70.8°. 
When fry accumulate in large numbers between deliveries to mes- 
sengers they are kept in large storage tanks rather than in the col- 
lector aquaria, this method having been found so advantageous that its 
application is general in the station. The tanks are 96 inches long by 
18 wide and 16 deep, partitioned midway between the ends to form two 
separate compartments, which are provided with guard screens at their 
outlet ends. The water circulation is derived from two one-fourth-inch 
jet cocks, to which gum tubing is attached, under 10 pounds pressure 
to a square inch. As many as 300,000 to 400,000 fry are supported 
in each subcompartment, the variation in number being regulated in 
accordance with temperature. 
An experiment was made of holding shad in standing water, 25,000 
fry being placed in a 12-gallon can and one-fourth the water changed 
every four hours. At the end of twelve days the loss was 4,185, and 
of these 40 per cent occurred in the first sixty hours. The temperature 
of the water at the beginning of the experiment was 56°, but gradually 
rose till on the twelfth day it was 70°; on the following five days it 
dropped to 52°, when heavy mortality occurred. 
The purchase of this station, at the head of Chesapeake Bay, Mary- 
land, which had been occupied under lease by the Commission for a 
number of years, was provided for in an act approved March 3, 1891. 
By direction of the United States Attorney-General, an examination of 
the title to the property was made by the United States district attor- 
ney for Maryland, who, on June 26, 1891, reported the same good in Mr. 
T. B. Ferguson, by whom a deed transferring the same to the United 
States was duly executed. 
