FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 1 97 



than trout eggs, being about one-eighth of an inch in diameter. Shad average 30,000 

 eggs, but a single fish has been known to produce as high as 156,000. Shad being a 

 spring spawning fish the eggs hatch in from three to nine days, and the treatment is 

 different from that of trout and other heavy, non-adhesive eggs. Shad eggs are 

 placed in a hatching jar of glass which admits water from the bottom and the pressure 

 or flow is regulated to hold the eggs in suspension as it were. Trout fry are born 

 with a large umbilical sac on which the fish feeds by absorption for from twenty to 

 forty days and which to all intents and purpose anchors the trout fry to the bottom 

 until the sac is nearly absorbed. Shad are born with a very small umbilical sac and 

 swim away with it as soon as the fish is hatched. Codfish eggs, one-eighteenth of an 

 inch in diameter, are bouyant, non-adhesive, and are hatched in a "tidal hatcher" 

 supposed to represent, in the action of water in the troughs, the action of the tides. 

 A codfish produces as many as 9,000,000 eggs at one time. The eggs float during 

 nearly the whole time of incubation, fourteen to twenty-one days, with the water from 

 thirty-eight to forty-three degrees Fahrenheit. Pike- perch eggs are heavy and 

 adhesive and one-thirteenth of an inch in diameter. The eggs are hatched in 

 a McDonald or Chase hatching jar, the same that is used in shad work ; but 

 after impregnation they are treated to a bath of water and powdered loam, the 

 water so thick with the loam that it is muddy. The eggs in bunches being covered 

 with mucous they are soon coated with the fine particles of loam in the water, but to 

 separate the eggs so that each particular egg may become coated, they are placed in a 

 metal cylinder with an intake at the bottom ; the water is cut off at the intake and air is 

 blown through the water which separates the bunches of eggs, and the loam in the 

 water coats them and prevents them from adhering again; after they are thoroughly 

 blown they are placed in the hatching jar where they hatch in from twelve to sixteen 

 days, and the fry absorb the sac in from six to twelve days after they are born, with 

 the water about forty-five degrees Fahrenheit. Mascalonge have eggs that are semi- 

 bouyant and slightly adhesive. They produce as many as 300,000 eggs or more, and 

 the average is about 100,000, the eggs being one-eleventh of an inch in diameter. 

 The ova are hatched in doublewire covered boxes sunk in the lake where the parent 

 fish are found, as well as in hatching jars. The wire is doubled at top and bottom of 

 the boxes, with space between, to protect the eggs from predatory fishes and other 

 enemies, and they hatch in about fifteen days with water at fifty-five degrees Fahren- 

 heit and it requires the same length of time for the sac to absorb. 



In the annual reports of the National and State Fish Commissions in America, 

 there are given figures to show how many fish have been hatched and planted during 

 the year. How can little fish be counted by the hundreds of millions? The fish are 

 not counted but the eggs from which the fish are hatched are measured into the 



