XC REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
Before discussing Prof. Ryder’s investigations, it will be interesting 
to note tlie progress previously made in the actual hatching of sturgeon 
eggs. The principal activity in that direction has been displayed in 
Germany, where the work has been successfully prosecuted since 1877. 
The Germans, however, give credit for the first practical results to the 
New York State fish commission in connection with experiments on the 
Hudson River in 1875, and the Seth Green box then employed was 
used in Europe in its original form as late as 1885. On the German 
rivers the eggs are generally collected as they flow from the ovarian 
duct of the ripe females, their emission being sometimes aided by slight 
pressure. The last of the eggs are also occasionally obtained by making 
an incision into the abdominal cavity. The male organs are usually 
removed from the body and the milt is then extracted from them. Af- 
ter fertilization has been effected in pans, the eggs are transferred to 
floating-boxes. Difficulty has been experienced in obtaining a large 
quantity of well- advanced eggs, and especially in securing both the 
mature eggs and milt at the same time. The contents of the hatching- 
boxes were sometimes injured or scattered by storms and mold occa- 
sionally made its appearance on the eggs, but, considering the means 
available, the results have been exceedingly gratifying, although not as 
extensive as had been expected. 
Prof. Ryder’s observations,* beginning about the middle of May and 
extending through nearly all of June, 1888, were not confined to the 
embryology of the common form and the practical methods of handling 
its eggs, but extended also to its later growth, anatomy, and habits, to 
the present aspects of the fishery, and to the distinctive characters and 
relations of the two species which inhabit our eastern-coast waters. 
According to Prof. Ryder there are two sharply defined species on the 
Atlantic coast, the Acipenser sturio Linne, or common sturgeon, and the 
Acipenser brevirostris Le Sueur, the short-nosed or blunt-nosed sturgeon. 
The former is the only species of commercial value on the Delaware 
River and probably elsewhere along the coast. The latter is a much 
smaller form, and is also very rare, only five specimens having been 
obtained by Prof. Ryder during the entire season. Its characters had 
not hitherto been well defined, but Le Sueur, who first described it 
about 1817, while noting its scarcity, speaks of it as being much 
sought after as an article of food, commanding a higher price at Phila- 
delphia than the larger species. At present, however, it is not marketed 
on the Delaware River, although it may be more common and attain a 
a larger size in other localities.. 
With respect to the embryology and development of the common 
species, Prof. Ryder explains that the ova when first extruded measure 
2.6 millimeters in diameter. On the exterior of the eggs there is a 
*The Sturgeon and Sturgeon Industries of tlie Eastern Coast of the United States, 
with an account of experiments hearing upon Sturgeon-Culture. By John A. Ryder. 
Bull. U. S. F. C., viii, for 1888, pp. 231-281, pis. xxxvii-lix. 
