68 REPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



2^ to 3 pounds in weight, and as many as 270 have been brought down 

 on one trip. At first onh^ 100 were placed in the boat, but on arrival 

 at destination many of them were found to be badlj^ bruised, and after 

 that they were packed in tightly, so that they would be unable to 

 move around and injure themselves. The experiment Avas successful, 

 and thereafter all fish were transferred packed in as closely as possible. 



Owing to the warm weather a great many of the females became 

 plugged early in November, 105 being removed at one time. This 

 condition was believed to be also due to some extent to their confine- 

 ment in the crates. A pond, 16 feet by 40 feet, was therefore con- 

 structed in water 3 feet deep, by sharpening 6-inch boards and driving 

 them into the river bottom, which was covered with 3 inches of soft 

 mud, with gravel underneath. In this inclosure 2,200 male and 

 female white-fish were placed, and at the end of 3 days it was noticed 

 that they had whipped off all the mud, the gravel being plainly in 

 sight. Commencing a week later, all of the females except 173 were 

 stripped, and only 10 plugged fish were found. The 173 were trans- 

 ferred to a crate, and though apparently in perfect health, in less 

 than a week half of them were plugged. It would thus appear that 

 it is better to hold the fish in ponds constructed in the river, though 

 at Grassy Island the percentage of plugged females was less than at 

 Willis Ground, although the fish were held altogether in crates. The 

 process followed in stripping the eggs was practically the same as 

 in past years, all of the fertilizing being done by the dry method, 

 though the milt was taken before the eggs. 



Fishing commenced at Grassj^ Island on October 7 and closed the 

 3d of December, 4,563 male and 5,870 female fish being taken. The 

 spawning season here lasted until the 19th of December, 4,460 of the 

 females crated, or about 76 per cent, yielding 108,288,000 eggs. 



At the other two points fishing commenced on October 23 and con- 

 tinued to the end of November, resulting in the capture of 7,323 

 females and 9,310 males. 4,905 females yielded 137,952,000 eggs, an 

 average of 28,124 per fish. 



All of the eggs collected were transferred promptly to the Detroit 

 hatchery; where they were either placed in jars or reshipped to other 

 stations. During the season 2,508 hauls of the seine were made. The 

 average number of white-fish taken per haul (including also immature 

 specimens) was 13, the catch of mature white-fish per haul averaging 11. 



The total number of eggs collected was 246,240,000, of which 

 48,020,000 were transferred to the Alpena hatchery, 40,732,000 to the 

 Sault Ste. Marie, 22,220,000 to Duluth, and 2,379,000 to other stations 

 and private applicants. The balance were hatched at Detroit and 

 distributed in April, by tugboats, in the Detroit River, Lake St. Clair, 

 and Lake Michigan, near Frankfort, Charlevoix, and Beaver Island, 

 most of them being liberated in Detroit River and Lake St. Clair. 



As the Detroit hatchery was overcrowded, the Alpena station was 



