Adhesive Eggs. 235 



would bunch up, and we had to take them out two and 

 three times per day, and perhaps oftener, and run 

 them through a wire screen with a mesh just large 

 enough to permit the eggs to pass through one at a 

 time. We killed a large part of the eggs in handling 

 them and working them through the screens. 



After I came to Wisconsin, for three years we Col- 

 lected our pike eggs at the mouth of the Wolf River. 

 We took from 150,000,000 to 200,000,000 eggs each 

 year ; but were able to hatch not more than 5 per cent, 

 of this vast number. The difficulty here was that the 

 milt came from the male fish in clots and would not 

 dissolve in the pan. After trying different methods 

 to overcome the difficulty, but without success, we de- 

 cided not to collect any more eggs at that point. Three 

 years ago I was ordered to plant some full-grown pike 

 in the lakes at Waupaca. For convenience in trans- 

 portation. Gill's Landing, a railroad station some 

 twenty miles up the river from where we had taken 

 eggs, was selected as the place to get the fish. To 

 our great surprise, we found the male fish here in 

 prime condition. We took a quantity of eggs and 

 hatched fully 60 per cent, of them. The only hypothe- 

 sis on which I can account for our failure to impreg- 

 nate the eggs at the mouth of the river is that the male 

 fish were not ripe when they entered the river. 



For several years we have collected eggs from Pike 

 Lake, in Price County. This lake is situated in the 

 pine forests, twenty-four miles from a railroad. A 

 hatch of 50 per cent, is a large average; but we have 

 impregnated fully 80 per cent, of the eggs taken from 

 this lake. The fish are of the large yellow variety ; the 

 male will produce more milt than a dozen males from 

 any other .waters in which I have collected eggs. 



