FOREST, FISH AXD GAME COMMISSIONER. 1 95 



about the spawning of that fish in the Hackensack in 1906, but as it turned 

 out, the Long Island streams furnished so large a supply of eggs, and kept 

 the Cold Spring Harbor station so continually busy as to make it unneces- 

 sary to attempt collecting in the Hackensack. 



An effort was made also to secure smelt and their eggs at Port Henry, 

 on Lake Champlain, but this was unsuccessful owing to our lack of informa- 

 tion about the particular spawning places and spawning times of the fish at 

 Port Henry. A few adult fish were captured and were transported to the 

 Adirondack hatcher v by Foreman Winchester, and some of these were 

 planted in a lake near the station. It is said that young smelt can be 

 obtained near the shore at Port Henry at certain seasons of the year, and if 

 this be true a second trial will be made in the hope of securing a large supply 

 for stocking trout waters of the Adirondacks. The smelt is a fine food fish 

 and is equally valuable as food for large trout. 



It is easy to transport the smelt, as demonstrated by the experience of 

 Commissioner Meehan, of Pennsylvania, whose men took 1,000 live adults 

 from Cold Spring Harbor to Corry, Pa., a railway journey of eight and one- 

 quarter hours, with a loss of only thirty-eight fish. 



The smelt have been kept alive in fish cars three days. In some 

 instances the fish would spawn in the cars, and the eggs would form in a 

 bunch or ball as big as a cocoanut. These eggs were always found to be 

 good. In collecting eggs at Great River or elsewhere, Foreman Walters 

 proposed to put them on trays all matted up just as they came from the 

 water and to fill the trays full. He advises that the eggs should not be left 

 in the car or box long after the fish spawn. He fills the trough with fish, 

 and if the fish are ready to spawn, and they generally are when the}' run up 

 the creek, he leaves them in the trough about three days and then takes out 

 the smelt and removes the eggs. If the eggs remain longer than three days 

 in the trough it is very hard to separate them. The small eggs are very 

 adhesive and bunch up into a mass. Mr. Walters rubs them through a 

 screen and then places them in glass jars and gives them a good flow of 

 water. If they bunch up again in the jars, he removes them, forces them 

 again through the screen and then returns them to the jar. 



At Cold Spring Harbor Mr. Walters finds strong light very injurious to 

 the eggs, and he therefore places curtains at the windows to moderate the 



