978 EEPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [4] 



HATCHING AND DISTRIBUTION OF FRY. 



The eggs received from Alpena arrived in good condition. In order 

 to retard the hatching, a considerable portion of the eggs were kept in 

 a refrigerator through December, and in order to preserve them in good 

 condition they were taken out and washed once a week. This prevented 

 the inconvenience of having them hatched faster than we could take 

 care of them, A few fry appeared early in February, but the number 

 was very small until the 16th, when the record shows that there were 

 about L\000,000 in the tanks. One million more were hatched on the 

 17th ; and on the 20th, Oar No. 2, in charge of J. F. Ellis, left for Manis- 

 tee with 3,000,000, and on the 22d for Grand Haven with 3,000,000; 

 on the 2oth to Erie, Pa., with 3,000,000, which nearly exhausted the 

 supply. The weather was very cold for the next few days, and eggs 

 hatched very slowly. No more shipments were made until March 3, 

 when the car went to Traverse Oity with 3,000,000. The hatching con- 

 tinued slowly, but another 3,000,000 were sent on the 10th to Oswego, 

 ]Sr. Y., and an equal number on the 14th to Port Huron. Hatching was 

 by this time going on more rapidly, and the car was kept going quite 

 lively in its work of distribution ; 3,000,000 more went to Oswego on 

 the 17th, and 3,000,000 on the 20th to Ludington, Mich. The rest of 

 the shipments were as follows : March 22, Port Huron, 3,000,000 ; 23, 

 Monroe, 3,000,000 5 25, Bass Islands, 3,000,000 ; 30, west shore of Lake 

 Michigan, 4,000,000; Bass Islands, April 8, 3,0.0,000; making a total 

 of 40,000,000 whitetish fry s^ent out and planted in good condition. 



THE WORK AT ALPENA. 



This station is supplied with water from the city water -works, which 

 enables us to have a higher head and greater pressure. We can there- 

 fore .do the work with much less water and with less trouble with the 

 closed jars than at North ville. The hatchery is equipped with both 

 McDonald and Chase jars, the latter placed in six tiers, one above the 

 other, the highest being near the ceiling, and the same water passing 

 through all. We were not able to detect any difference in the hatching 

 in the upper and lower tiers. 



The supply of eggs was derived from the following sources : 



Jari 



Round Island, 9 pound-nets 



Nine-Mile Point, 6 pound-nets 16 



Hammond's Bay, 16 pound-nets 55 



Oscoda, 4 pound-nets , 16 



Alcona, II pound-nets 148 



Beaver Islands, 10 pound-nets 3 



Ossineke, 8 pound-nets 5 



Scarecrow Island, 4 pound-nets 5 



Total from pound-nets -• 262 



From gill-nets in various grounds 113 



Total from all sources -..-r.-^ .-. ••- • - 375 



I 



