392 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Junk 11, 1885. 



years, not only at Locust Valley, but on all Long Island 

 streams, a result which may be attributed to over-fishing, and 

 in my opinion there is need of legislation to protect this valua- 

 ble little food fish Their habit of ascending streams at night 

 and returning to salt water before day renders them liable to 

 capture both ways, and is a habit that, so far as my know- 

 ledge extends, is sha.red by no other anadromous fish, and is 

 not mentioned in any work that I have seen. The fish is well 

 worth protection, for it is a favorite winter fish about ISiew 

 York. It wid live in fresh water, and is said to have bred for 

 some years in the lakes of Vermont, where it is reported tiiat 

 its edible qualities are generally unknown, and it is only used 

 as a bait fish. The fish is found in fresh water in New Hamp- 

 shire and in Sweden, also in Lake Cham plain, but whether it 

 remains in the lake all year or not I eauuot say. If they do 

 not remain there the fish go higher up in this case than in any 

 that I know of. On the coasts of New York and New Jersey, 

 twenty miles is about the limit of their ascent. 



The first report of the Fish Commissioners of Maine, 1807, 

 under a heading of "Fresh- Water Smelt," p. 35, says: "Smelts 

 are scattered all over the State. It seems probable that wo 

 have more than one species. Whether either of them is ident- 

 ical with the salt-water smelt we cannot say, but the resem- 

 blance is very close. In several localities they attain a large 

 size. Those of Harrison are said to exceed half a pound in 

 weight, and those of Belgrade to measure fourteen inches in 

 length. 1 ' In the second report of the Maine Commission they 

 say, p. 29: "It is said that at the mouth of a small stream, 

 somewhere above Bay Bridge [on the Androscoggin], where 

 smelts are accustomed to run in the spring to spawn, and 

 where it has been the custom to dip for them, for several 

 years a seine has been used, and tons of them were taken out 

 When nearly worthless for food. Many were shipped to New 

 York and commanded a price that hardly paid for transpor- 

 tation. This is an abuse which should be stopped. We 

 think no smelts should be taken daring the spawn- 

 ing season— say from April 1 to June 1. Enough 

 can be taken in the fall and winter, when they 

 are in good condition, and it is wonderful that they can 

 stand the draft that is then made on their numbers. 1 ' In their 

 third report, 1869, the Comn issioners say: "The impression 

 has been quite general that the smelt fishery is overdone, and 

 unless some radical measures n re taken, it will soon fall into 

 as great decay as have the salmon and alewife fisheries. * * 



* * The act 'to protect smelts in the waters of the Ken- 

 nebec and Androscoggin rivers,' approved March 4, 1869, aims 

 to lessen the catch by prohibiting the use of any implement 

 but hook and line every alternate year, and at the same time 

 allow the fish so ascend those rivers to the points where they 

 were wont to be taken by hook and line. Undoubtedy the 

 first mentioned object would be attained, but whether the 

 latter would is uncertain. Jt is desirable to substitute for this 

 some act of wider application, and consequently bearing more 

 equally on all who are engaged in this fishery. I suggest 

 whether a prohibition to take, smelts except during Decern her, 

 January and February, by any other mode than hook and 

 line, and perhaps dip-net, would not apply well to the whole 

 State." 



Under the laws of Maine for 1874, chap. 248, sec. 58, it was 

 forbidden to fish for smelts in any other way than by hook 

 and line or dip-net, between April* 1 and Oct. 1. The State of 

 Massachusetts passed a law, approved April 9, 1874, forbidding 

 the offering for sale or having in possession any smelts 

 between March 15 and June 1, and forbade then- capture by 

 any other means than hook and hue at any time except in the 

 counties of Bristol, Barnstable and Dukes. I am not aware 

 that any smelts are taken with a hook and line within 

 the waters of New York, nor do I know that there is any law 

 protecting them at any season. The numbers caught are 

 quite small, the market supply coming inainly from the 

 Eastern States, yet in view of* the fact that the fish was 

 formerly plenty on Long Island and has been gradually de- 

 decreasing by reason of continued capture at the spawning 

 season, I believe that it would be to the interests of the 

 people and of the fishermen to protect them from Feb. 20 to 

 March 20. 



A year passed after the first attempt to get eggs, and late in 

 February, 1SS5, while looking through Fulton Market, New 

 York. Mr. Blackford told me that smelts were coming in from 

 the south side of Long Island. I sent Mr. Walters down to 

 Brookhaven. a place on the eastern end of the Great South 

 Bay. where the Ca.rman's Paver, or, as formerly called, the 

 Connecticut Paver, comes in. I will here digress to say that 

 the Shinnecock Indians are reported to have bad a tradition 

 that this nver was a continuation of the great river of that 

 name, which, by means of some subterrauean passage under 

 Long Island Sound, breaks out again on the island. The Con- 

 necticut River of Long Island is about five miles long, and the 

 smelt often run up it in great quantities, but are said not to go 

 further than half a mile from its mouth. They begin to iun 

 in about the 15th of February, and the run lasts one month. 

 They are taken with seines and gill-nets, and an average 

 catch for one man is seventy-five per night. 



On the 4fch of March Mr. Walters returned with one hun- 

 dred and twenty fish nearly ripe and a fair proportion of each 

 sex. Eight had died on the ."journey from being caught in gill 

 nets when so nearly ripe, five mote" died shortly after, and all 

 were more or less injured. From one of the five dead fish 1 

 took 80,000 eggs after the fish had been dead fifteen minutes, 

 using a live male. The eggs were taken on a bunch of coarse 

 meadow-grass and suspended in a glass tank with a flow of 

 water from a >a-inch cock, and in three days many were Uead, 

 and all died at a week old. On the 5th I repeated the experi- 

 ment with a dying female. In five days three dead eggs 

 showed, the sixth day 100 dead, seventh day one-fourth of the 

 lot were dead. Up to the 17 h, the thirteenth day after tak- 

 ing, there was little change, and on the 20th the eggs were put 

 in a box outside the hatchery in swift water, as they 

 began to show fungus. March 26 about one-half were alive, 

 and these were in b nches covered by dead eggs and fungus. 

 All the outside eggs were dead, and f had little hopes of sav- 

 ing any. On April 8, the fish could be plainly seen in the 

 lower eggs by removing the coating of dead eggs and fungus 

 which had covered them for two weeks. The eggs were 

 again placed in the aquarium and 2,000 hatched on April 11, 

 and on the 16th 9,000 more hatched and the rest were bad. 

 About one-third of the eggs hatched under conditions which 

 seemed hopeles-s and under which it would be impossible, to 

 hatch the egg of a salmon or a trout. When the last ones 

 hatched the mass of dead eggs was rotten and foul. The tem- 

 perature ranged from 40 to 42 degrees Fahr. In taking the 

 eggs the grass was laid in a milk pan and covered with water. 

 The female was manipulated fiist, and as the eggs do not stick 

 fast until some minutes after being taken, perhaps after im- 

 pregnation takes place, they were distributed, evenly over the 

 grass with the tail of a fish. 



Knowing nothing of smelt hatching, the literature of which 

 is meagre, we determined to try several plans. On March 5 

 Mr. Walters took about 50,000' eggs from a weak female on 

 stones the size of a man's fist, m water, and placed them out- 

 side the building in a covered waste trough which takes the 

 water from the house to the ponds. The current was slow 

 but the eggs washed off, refusing to stick in bunches, as on 

 grass. The consequence was that the stones were covered 

 with eggs only one layer deep. Three days after this they 

 looked well, buf in a week were all dead, though no fungus 

 had formed. He tried again on March 8, by taking about 

 70,000 eggs by the dry method on tiles, letting fchem stand 

 five minutes before adding water, and then placed them in 

 one of the hatching troughs. On the 16th one-half were dead, 

 and on the 24th they were covered with fungus. On April 7 

 there had been no change, the eggs underneath the fungus 

 were bright and good, but he went away the next day and 

 %d not return until the 12th, when he found the trough 



empty. The other attendants pronounced them all dead and 

 threw them away. Neither of us saw them on the last day, 

 and we do not feel certain that they were dead, for our ex- 

 perience this year tells us that it requires an expert to judge 

 of this. A mass of smelt eggs all rotten on the outside and 

 covered with fungus half an inch long, shoold be given the 

 benefit of all doubts, and be earefully examined before con- 

 demnation. 



On March 9 we obtained 100 more fish which had been taken 



seines, The first lot were so badlv injured by gill-nets that 

 they were covered with fungus in a few days. On the 12th 

 we got 70,000 eggs on tiles and stones, taken in water, and 

 placed them in a trough which receives the flow from nine 

 hatching troughs, and is consequently earring a swift current. 

 These eggs were evenly distributed over tire tiles and stones 

 sover« 1 deep, and did not flow off as in previous cases. Not 

 until March 22, eleven days after, did we see any dead eggs or 

 fungus. At five, days old we could see the formation of the 

 embryo with a microscope, and at fifteen da#s the fish could 

 be seen with the unassisted eye. At this time fungus had 

 spread all over the outside eggs, but underneath there were 

 but few dead ones. On April 6, when the eggs were twenty- 

 six days old, they were placed in the glass tanks with a flow 

 from above, and a siphon outlet, and four days later began 

 hatching fast, and two days after we had 11,000 fish, all that 

 we. obtained, the. temperature varying from 37 to 58 degrees, 

 and the time thirty days. The water in all these experiments 

 was pure spring water. 



The last trial was in the McDonald hatching jars and was the 

 best of all, producing 60,000 fish from 200,00(/eggs. They were 

 taken on March 21 by the diy method, let stand five minutes 

 and added half a pint of water and kept in motion twenty 

 minutes by tipping the pan from side to side and occasionally 

 using the tail of a fish. The object of this was to keep the 

 eggs from sticking together, so that they might be treated as 

 free eggs. After this more water was added and the eggs 

 allowed to rest for twenty minutes. They were then washed 

 twice and placed in a McDonald jar. They were taken at 5 :10 

 P. M., were all loose at (5:30 P. M., and at 7 P. M. next day 

 many were stuck fast to the jar and the tubes. On March SO 

 those still loose were placed' in another jar, and on Anril 2 a 

 few dead ones were observed, while four days later the eggs 

 grouped together in bunches which increased in size until on 

 April 15 the bunches were of the size of walnuts and covered 

 with fungus. On the 20th a few hatched and on the Slot all 

 that were good came out. From this lot we got 50,000 fish in 

 thirty days with a temperature varying from forty to sixty- 

 five degrees. 



The fish are the most minute of any that I have hatched and 

 it troubled us to keep them. A strainer tube inclosing a siphon 

 such as we use for whitefish, was entirely too large, for the 

 fish passed through it with ease. After trying several things 

 and rmving the aquarium overflow, and the fish go out into 

 the trout ponds, we devised a spiral wire rolled on a stick of 

 four inches diameter and covered with thin muslin; this kept 

 the fish and allowed a small stream to flow out of the siphon 

 which was inserted. I will here say that the lower end of 

 such siphon should be placed in a jar of water in order that it 

 does not suck dry. The difficulty' with siphons as outlets is 

 their tendency to empty faster than the inflow, and in conse- 

 sequence they empty themselves and then decline to start 

 again. Placing tlieir lower end in a fruit jar overcomes this 

 failing; they will suck no lower than the top of the jar holding 

 the lower end. I used this plan in the New York A quarium in 

 1876, but do not claim to have Originated it. Of the eggs re 

 maining attached to the first jar and its tubes in a single layer, 

 not one hatched, most of the fish came from eggs which were 

 in masses surrounded by fungus. This year's experience up- 

 sets that of my eighteen previous years which taught me that 

 the egg of a fish should be clean and free from fungus. I now 

 except the smelt from the rule and think it possible that the 

 embryo smelt must be protected from too much oxygen and 

 good water by a coating of decayed eggs and fungus. Per- 

 haps this is what gives the adult fish its peculiar cucumber 

 odor. 



On April 17 we turned out in the hole below the waste flume 

 of the mill pond, near the hatchery, 20.000, and 80,000 in a 

 small spring run in the meadow of Mr. W. E. Jones, opposite 

 the hatchery, while later 50.000 escaped into our ponds by the 

 overflow of the tanks which were ordered by Commissioner 

 Blackford to be sent to Mr. R. W. Howe, Rigdewood, Long 

 Island. The fish are so minute that muslin strainers were re- 

 quired, and an extra flow of water clogged them and the 

 tanks overflowed, so that all our 100,000 fish will get into the 

 harbor through three channels. 



I have said that the literature of smelt hatching is meager. 

 Mr. George Richards, of New Jersey, has experimented with 

 these fish for several years and has hatched some, but has pub- 

 lished nothing to guide others. A search of my library, be- 

 yond which I have no knowledge of what may have"been 

 done, reveals the following: 



Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission, Vol. I., p. 

 428 (1881, Charles W. Harding, King's Lynn, England, writes 

 Prof. Baird for information, wants to know if the English and 

 American smelt are identical and if the eggs are hatched in 

 fresh water, says: "Smelts spawn in this river (Ouse) from 

 April to beginning of June, and I am anxious to know if it is 

 possible to obtain the ova either from the fish direct, or from 

 the spawning ground, and hatch it out in gauze trays or 

 troughs, and whether fresh water will do, or is it necessary to 

 have the water partly salt." 



Norris, "American Fish Culture" (1868), p. 200. says that 

 bore and in England the smelt has been naturalized in fresh 

 water lakes, "although an interference with their anadromous 

 habits produces generations of smaller and, perhaps, less pal- 

 atable fish." I note the caution with which the careful Nor- 

 ris, whom I am proud to call my old angling friend, and 

 whose book gave me some hints when I had started in as a 

 novice in fishculture nearly eighteen years ago, says "perhaps" 

 the fish are less palatable. The adverb shows that while he 

 did not know it to be so he recognized the fact that no fish 

 which lives in fresh water is as good for the table as if it 

 dwelt in the sea, a thing well known to all who live near salt 

 water, but "Uncle Thad. "gives us no hintas to smelt hatching. 



Jerome Von Crowninshield Smith, M.D., the most absurd 

 and ignorent writer on fish that I know of, says ("Natural 

 History of the Fish of Massachusetts," 1888, p". 148): "An 

 attempt has been made to acclimate the smelts in a fresh-water 

 pond, but they have soon degenerated, becoming first emaci- 

 ated, and disappeared, by degrees, til) they probably all died." 

 This is my experience with adult fish, although 1 have now 

 about thirty male fish alive in fresh water, all the females 

 having, died. 



Mr. Charles G-. Atkins, "Report U. S. Fish Commission," 

 3879, p. 742, says: "November 0.— This forenoon early Mr. 

 Munson found a great run of smelts at the spawning shed 

 (above the dam). He said ho could have dipped any number 

 if they had not been so shy and quick. As it was*he dipped 

 150 or 200, which I have preserved. They are mature, showing 

 clearly spawn and milt through their transparent bedies. 

 [These smelts are among the most diminutive of their genus, 

 averaging in length but little more than two inches. They 

 are found in several if not all the Schoodic Lakes. In one of 

 the tributaries of the 'Upper Dobsey' Lake (Indian name, 

 Syskidobsis-Nis) they are wont to spawn late in the month of 

 February." See also a series of questions by Mr. Atkins, 

 "Report U. S. Fish Commission," 1880, p. 44, 



The best report on smelt hatching is contained in the report 

 of a Commission of Fisheries of Maryland (Thoraa e B. Fergu- 

 son), 1878, pp. 41-94, by Prof. H. J. Kice. His field of opera- 

 tion was at the City of New Brunswick, about eight miles 

 from the mouth of the Raritan River, N. J. Prof. Rice alludes, 

 p. 44, to experiments of Mr. Atkins with the landlocked smelt 

 which I do not find, but which was "not favorable to the 



handling of this species of adhesive spawn, and if I [he] mis- 

 take not, Mr. Atkins's conclusions were that it would not pay 

 to handle it." Prof. Rice states that Mr. Atkins hatched 

 some eggs which were exposed to the full force of running 

 water, "in fact, that spawn only hatched which remained at- 

 tached to grass, twigs, or other articles situated in a direct 

 raceway, and where the water rushed along very furiously. 

 The spawn seemed to require, at least for its artificial culture, 

 a constant and furious change of water, differing, undoubtedly 

 m this respect, very widely from its requirements when de- 

 posited by the fish upon its natural spawning grounds. The 

 hsh the Commission had to deal with, on the contrary, ana- 

 dromous, and we had no rush of water in which to depositthe 

 spawn. " 



Prof. Rice used the Ferguson hatching jars. He records 

 the use of glass, untwisted rope-warp, gauze, etc., and says: 

 "The greater portion of these dead eggs were upon the grass, 

 rope, moss and twigs already mentioned, and the greater por- 

 tion of fish came, from those eggs which were taken on trays 

 covered with gauze, and those eggs which were massed together 

 in the bottom of the jars, in the strength of whatever current 

 there was." He says, p. 52, "This fungus covering thee r, gs 

 must have a very deleterious effect upon them, and I do not 

 think it would be very wrong to ascribe to it the death of a 

 goodly portion of the eggs." I read this some years ago and 

 agreed to it because not only my own experience, but that of 

 every other fisbculturist agreed that fungus meant death to 

 ad fish eggs. My lessons this winter seem to prove that with 

 the eggs of the smelt a rush of water or rather an excess 

 of oxygen which is brought bv it, means death, and the out- 

 side eggs meet it first and by the bulwark of their 

 dead bodies those inside are preserved. : I am aware that 

 this is not only a new view to take of the development of a 

 fish egg, but one that is liable to assaidt from many sides. 

 Still, with only one season's experience, I launch it' as my 

 present belief, subject to change as the fugitive Tempos dis- 

 closes new facts or brings forward new experiences. I have 

 never feared to hold unpopular beliefs or to stand by what I 

 thought to be right, and now only wish that the smelt had 

 yielded more eggs, which might have been tried in ail degrees 

 of Bpw, from moderate to almost stagnant water. Certain it 

 is that all the fish we hatched came from eggs protected from 

 rapid change of water by a coating of dead eggs and fungus, 

 which, by the time the interior eggs were hatched, was a most 

 foul and filthy mass, really unfit for a visitor to look at, for he 

 would not have believed that a fish could issue from it. 



To complete this experience it will be necessary to say that 

 Mr. Ricardo wished to try an experiment in transporting 

 smelt eggs, and one morning brought to Mr. Blackford some 

 twenty thousand eggs, taken on grass sewed on muslin 

 stretched on a wire frame, and packed in moss. This lot was 

 placed in a hatching trough in swift water the night after re- 

 ceiving, and when removed at about the time of hatching to 

 a glass tank, some twenty fish came out, a result not encour- 

 aging to that mode of packing. He afterward sent me eighty 

 thousand fry by express in a ton-gallon can, which w as twelve 

 hours on the way without attention, but they arrived dead. 

 It is his belief, and 1 understand ttiat it is shared by Prof. 

 Rice, that the fry need no change. 1 am not prepared to 

 accept this view, which if true is singular, for the fish hatch 

 in swift brooks. 



Ma. Lyman— The results of Mr. Mather's experiments re- 

 garding the protection of eggs against the action "of the water, 

 appear to me somewhat novel. Perhaps some gentleman 

 would like to make some observations or relate experiments 

 of a kindi ed nature which he may have conducted. 



Mb. H. J. Rice- -in regard to the work oi Mr. Atkins and 

 myself it may be well to state that just before beginning 

 operations at New Brunswick a letter was received from Mr. 

 Atkins detailing briefly his method and amount of success in 

 his work in Maine, and my work at New Brunswick, followed 

 to a certain extent his experiments, modified very largely, of 

 course, by the different conditons of our more southern 

 locality. Some of his methods for gathering and holding the 

 spawn" I found to answer very well, but I misuaderstQod some 

 of his writing and was under "the impression that he had not 

 been successful, but found out afterward in convcr.- ation 

 with him that he had hatched out quite a large number of the 

 eggs with which he was experimenting and he thought that 

 his experiments, taken as a whole, should be considered as 

 fairly satisfactory. As to my own experiments since 1876 and 

 1877, the result serves to show greater success in hatching 

 smelt in comparatively stagnant water than in any other 

 manner. The smelt appears to be a peculiar fish among tish, 

 and is at present no longer considered as one of the Sulmonidce. 

 Young smelt wfll live in the same water for nine days, and 

 fishcultunsts will at once recognize the vast difference in this 

 respect, between these minute embryos and those of some of 

 the Salinonicke, where a constant change of water is absolutely 

 necessary. Again, the warmer the water the better smelt 

 appear to thrive. If you take the smelt out of this 

 bottle (pointing to a bottle of young smelt on the chairman's 

 table) and put them in cold water, they wfll die. Place them 

 near the stove and they will become more lively than ever. I 

 do not know the limits of heat and cold which will respectively 

 produce activity or death with these fish; but 1 do know that 

 if water containing smelt be cooled to a temperature in which 

 trout would enjoy themselves, the smelt would die. With re- 

 gard to the effect of fungus upon the hsh, I tlnnk that, while 

 in some cases it proves fatal to them, yet in others, as Mr. 

 Mather has suggested, it forms a protection for the fish which 

 are inside of the bunch. Last year and also this season exper- 

 iments have been in progress to ascertain the feasibility of 

 hatching young smelt in comparatively stagnant water. * So 

 far this plan appears to be successful. Laige numbers have 

 been hatched out and with comparatively lhtle trouble. This 

 corresponds in a great degree with what "Mr. Mather has said, 

 and I am inclined to think that eventually we shall find that 

 the less cold water we use, the larger will be the number of 

 eggs hatched out. It may possibly be necessary to kill the 

 fungus by the use of salt mush, 



Mr. Lyman — I recollect in 1867 or 1868 trying to hatch some 

 of the large vai ietv called Belgrade smelt. 1 put them in run- 

 ning water, somewhat swift, in which I kept my trout eggs, 

 but none ot them hatched. The smelt is, of course, a very in- 

 teresting fish, and is one of the first species by which the fact 

 was demonstrated that quantity might be increased by good 

 laws. As you will all recollect, some twenty years ago or 

 rather more, in Massachusetts the smelt fishery had greatly 

 declined. It "was supposed to be due to the capture of the fish 

 by means of nets stretched entirely across the brooks, which 

 prevented the fish from ascending the stream. The law to 

 which Mr. Mather has referred was passed on the recommen- 

 dation of the Fishery Commissioners of Massachusetts. In two 

 or three years the catch of fish was very greatly improved , 

 so much so, that bays and streams which had been 

 nearly depopulated, ouce more became filled with 

 valuable hsh. Ever since then, we have had a pretty 

 good supply of smelts in our State. I was very much 

 interested in the reference of Mr. Mather to Dr. J. C. Smith, 

 as being the most ignorant man that had ever written about 

 fish. It illustrates the theory that in order to succeed one 

 should always bo profoundly ignorant of the subject. He 

 took up the matter ot naming American fishes, and for this 

 purppse he used the Latin names that corresponded to Euro- 

 pean fishes, which bore the same English names as did Ameri- 

 can fishes. In this way he often stumbled on the right nomen- 

 clature. At that time it was supposed that the same species 

 of fish were not to be found on the two sides of the Atlantic. 

 Since then, however, many of these species have been proved 

 to be identical, so that Dr! Smith was one of tUe first persons 

 accidentally to recognize a prominent scientificfact which has 

 only been attained by years of hard study. 



