APPENDIX. 271 



sight still, was the egg by itself, when held up to the light 

 and examined ; for there within the thin transparent shell, 

 could be seen the curled body of the young embryo, and 

 the two distinct black specks which were to be its eyes. 

 It turned out, however, that only about twenty-five per cent, 

 of the ova were impregnated. This, however, experience 

 has shown to be as large a percentage as could be expected 

 from fish caught with a spear, as Dr. Fletcher was obliged 

 to take them. The unimpregnated eggs gradually became 

 opaque and were removed from the beds, although some 

 remain-ed unturned long after the good eggs were hatched, 

 and could be clearly seen then, as all along previously, to 

 be perfectly empty. The impregnated eggs did remarkably 

 well; almost all of them lived, and hatched considerably 

 over ninety-nine per cent. The newly hatched salmon 

 were very lively, and the loss by death, while the yolk 

 sac remained, was very small, even less than when in the 

 egg state. After the sac disappeared there was a slight 

 mortality among the young fish for a few days. Since 

 then they have been very healthy, and are now doing finely. 

 They were transferred, a short time after becoming fully 

 formed fish, from the hatching-beds to the rearing-box of 

 the Cold Spring Ponds, where they are still kept. 



It is the plan of the commissioners to have them retained 

 and reared artificially, until they are ready to go to the sea,, 

 which will be next spring for one-half of them, and the 

 succeeding spring for the other half. 



The number which was obtained this year for the Con- 

 necticut river, is wholly inadequate to the requirements of 

 a river of such magnitude, and the movement made this 

 year for stocking it with salmon, is to be regarded as 

 experimental merely. The few thousand smolts that come 

 from this batch of eggs will hardly be heard from again 

 in so large a river, but it is hoped that hereafter when the 



