' REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF PISH AND FISHERIES. XLIII 



At Battery Island Station, Maryland, eggs were obtained in 1887 

 from the fishermen. The steamers Fish Hawk and Halcyon cooperated 

 with this station. The percentage of ripe shad at Battery Island was 

 unusually large. 60,569,000 were received during the season of 1887. 

 In the season of 1888 the steamer Fish Hawk was supplied with two 

 hatching tables on each side of the hatching deck, with a capacity of 37 

 McDonald automatic jars each. The water supply was furnished by 

 two wooden tanks placed on the upper deck. This increased the capa- 

 city of the steamer to the amount of 12,000,000 eggs at one time. 



The first shad eggs were collected May 7 by the steamer Fish Hawk, 

 in Delaware River near Gloucester. The last eggs were taken June 5. 

 A single shad from Delaware River, on June 4, yielded 115,000 eggs. 

 The temperature of the water did not exceed 65° until May 30, and, as 

 a consequence, the period of incubation was retarded to 7 days. 



On May 29, a violent thunderstorm on Delaware River destroyed 

 1,918,000 eggs which were nearly developed in the jars. 



Three times during the season of 1888 heavy rains produced freshets 

 in the Susquehanna, which ran off the fish for several days, and high 

 winds prevailed throughout. The last freshet, occurring on May 31, 

 practically closed the work, only 340,000 eggs having been taken in 

 June. As soon as the water became clear fish were caught in abun- 

 dance and continued plentiful until the end of the fishing season. The 

 catch of shad was heavy, both in the bay and up the river, many 

 gillers getting over 6,000 during the season. 



The experiment of shipping shad eggs by express was tried in the 

 spring of 1888 ; 5,000,000 were forwarded in good condition to Cold 

 Spring Harbor, New York. There was great mortality in hatching 

 these eggs in spring water at Cold Spring Harbor. This was attribu- 

 ted to the use of pine water pipes, which had not been thoroughly 

 soaked. All the other eggs hatched remarkably well and shad have 

 always hatched well in spring water before. 2,139,000 eggs were for- 

 warded to Utah on car No. 2 and hatched on the way. 



On May 15, 1887, a shipment of 1,184,000 eggs was placed in car No. 

 3 under the care of Mr. S. G. Worth for hatching on the way to Albany, 

 New York. The eggs reached their destination on the 16th, and 30,000 

 were hatched on arrival. The remainder were hatched in the car by con- 

 necting the feed pipes with the city water works, the last of them having 

 been liberated on the 18th. The loss in hatching was 20 per cent., due 

 chiefly, in Mr. Worth's opinion, to the low temperature of the water in 

 the engine tenders. The successful working of hatching apparatus on 

 cars Nos. 2 and 3 enabled us to relieve the hatcheries of over 2,000,000 

 eggs per car each trip, the loss in transit being little greater than at the 

 hatcheries. 



The number of shad fry distributed from April 26 to June 9, the 

 commencement and close of the season of 1888, was the largest since 

 the organization of the Commission. The total number of eggs col- 



