206 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



different temperatures, and it is reported by the Coast-Survey that in 

 the Hudson Eiver a counter- current of salt water is found underlying 

 the outward current of brackish water. This view receives some 

 strength from the fact that scup keep near the surface while in the 

 schools, and, as we believe, in the act of spawning. But however large 

 the part this may play in the process of spawning, we desire to present 

 some other phases of equal or greater importance. 



I am informed by a gentleman that he once witnessed trout, kept in 

 an aquarium, in the act of spawning 5 the whole process occupied three 

 days. At intervals the female would eject a stream of ova into the 

 water, and immediately the male would emit a quantity of fluid. When 

 an egg came in contact with a- particle of this fluid, it would sink to the 

 bottom, while those that did not, rose to the top ; the former was said to 

 be impregnated and the latter were not, and were consequently lost. 



If the same process takes place with regard to scup, (and I have no 

 reason to doubt it,) one of the conditions to a successful spawning is to 

 select water most protected from the wind, most exposed to the sun, and 

 out of the reach and action of the tide, where it shall be as quiet afc pos- 

 sible. Seaconnet Eiver presents, especially at Church's Cove, these con- 

 ditions more perfectly than either of the other passages of the river. 

 There is, comparatively, less current, on account of the obstruction 

 made by Stone Bridge; the water is shallow, and the eddy or counter- 

 current at Church's Cove creates comparatively still water and is pro- 

 tected from the northeast wind, while the other passages are open to 

 this wind, and the water is deeper. Another condition seems to be that 

 as the males are to the females about as one to four, it is necessary for 

 the impregnation of the ova that these fish should concentrate as closely 

 as possible. By this mode a larger number of the eggs would be vivified 

 than if they were separate and isolated. 



Undoubtedly, particularly if the waters are in more than ordinary 

 motion, caused by the winds, a very large proportion of the spawn es- 

 capes this fluid, and it is then only useful as food for other fish in attend- 

 ance upon them. The vivified ova sink to the bottom, among the crevices 

 formed by the rocky bottom, where they remain until hatched. This is 

 the real cause, it seems to me, why scup are found at this period at 

 Church's Cove. 



Great stress is laid by the trappers on the fact that the traps are set 

 with their mouths so as to take the fish coming down the shore. 

 They assert that the fish are skirting the shores until they come to the 

 mouth of the river ; they then strike across until they reach the shores 

 at Church's Cove, when they turn southwardly, down stream, and on 

 their course are taken in the act of leaving the State waters and going 

 to the eastward. Let us see whether this is actually the case. 



It is admitted that the traps at Seaconnet Point take nine-tenths of all 

 the fish trapped between Newport and this locality. 



If the fish were following the shores as asserted, it would seem proba- 

 ble that a larger proportion would be caught by the other traps on the 

 Newport side of coast; as this is not the case, the inference to be drawn 

 is. that they did not reach Seaconnet Point from* that direction. 



Further, from the evidence that the fish were caught this season at 

 Nantucket and Seaconnet Point, respectively, before they were caught 

 at the traps off Newport, the conclusion is, that of the two directions, 

 eastward and westward, they came from the latter, if either. 



Now, in this latter case, the mouths of the traps should have been set 

 the other way, but they were not, and as about the same quantity were 

 taken last season as the one before, it is evident that they came neither 



