330 Third Annual Eeport of the 



easy task for the spawn taker to go out on these tugs to get the 

 eggs, and it is difficult to secure competent help. It is hard to 

 get good eggs from gill nets that remain in the water 2, 3 or 4 

 days before lifting. Although the fish are alive when the eggs 

 are taken, they become waterlogged, and the eggs come freely 

 before they are mature. After the eggs have been in the hatching 

 jars from 2 to 4 weeks in water at 34 degrees they will begin to 

 show the poor ones, and bring the percentage of hatch under the 

 average. If the fish were caught in pound nets or if they remained 

 in the gill net not over 12 to 24 hours, I believe 85 to 90 

 per cent of them would hatch. 



Much credit is due to the Pennsylvania Fish Commission and 

 Superintendent Hartman, at Erie, and to the Desmond Fish Com- 

 pany, of Dunkirk, ~N. Y., for their courtesy and help in collecting 

 lake herring eggs. Some of the herring fry were planted in Chau- 

 tauqua lake, but the bulk of them, 12,000,000, were sent to Lake 

 Erie at Dunkirk. 



High water at the beginning of the season was a hindrance 

 to the maskalonge work. The maskalonge, when first hatched, is 

 one of the most helpless of fishes, and is a prey of any and all 

 smaller fishes, besides, as soon as it is able to swim it devours 

 its own kind in preference to any other food we have yet been 

 able to provide. Owing to lack of railroad transportation for 

 reaching applicants in this section, a large part of the maskalonge 

 eggs, at the eyed stage, were sent to the Caledonia Hatchery for 

 development and distribution from there. There were also fur- 

 nished to the Pennsylvania Fish Commission 500,000 eyed mas- 

 kalonge eggs for their station at Union City. 



The collection of yellow perch eggs was small owing to windy 

 weather which prevented finding the eggs at the proper time. 

 The perch seldom exceeds 6 inches in length in this lake, and is 

 therefore not fished for as in most waters. 



During July and August there are many visitors at the hatch- 

 ery. A pound net was set to collect fish for exhibition in the 

 cement ponds. Maskalonge, carp, billfish, bullheads, black bass, 

 large mouthed and small mouthed, rock bass and sunfish were 

 exhibited and proved very attractive to the visitors. Two mas- 

 kalonge, 4 feet long and weighing from 35 to 38 pounds, were 



