June 17, 1886.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



413 



Address all communications to the Forest and Stream Publish 

 ing Co. 



SMELT HATCHING. 



BT FRED MATHER. 



[Read before the American Fisheries Society.] 



\ T the last meeting of this society I read a paper on "Hatch- 

 rx. ing Smelt," giving the details of my first experiments, 

 and stating at the same time that but little had been done 

 with the eggs of this fish and that the literature of its culture 

 was very limited. I have continued these experiments the 

 present year and have but little to add to what I have before 

 said. The eggs of the smelt are the most unsatisfactory of 

 any fish eggs 1 have ever handled. Their glutinous character 

 and small size forbids the separation of the dead from the 

 living by the automatic jars or by baud picking, consequently 

 they decay and become foul. 



We have thisyear at the Cold Spring Harbor station of the N. 

 Y. Fish Commission placed them upon the straw coverings of 

 wine bottles, hung in ponds and also placed them in the hatchery 

 in running water. Others were put on tin pans hung in the 

 ponds and in the McDonald jars, uuder several different con- 

 ditions; one of these was to place the newly taken eggs in a 

 jar and by slowly rotating it to leave a covering of eggs all 

 around the inside. Another mode was to put them in the jars 

 and give them a strong circulation of water to prevent their 

 adhering in masses as much as possible. The third method 

 was to give a jar a very slight circulation and let them mass 

 together. 



The eggs exposed to light on the straw and tin pans in the 

 open ponds out of doors were soon covered with fungus and 

 did the worst of all, although a few hatched. 



The first eggs obta,iued this year were obtained on Feb. 25, 

 to the number of 400,000. Some of these were placed upon the 

 straw coverings, referred to above, and others were put in 

 jars, the main portion being thus deposited. Both these lots 

 began to hatch on April 5, forty days after, and when I last 

 saw them, on April 9, there were perhaps 10,000 already 

 hatched; while the other eggs, taken on the same day and 

 subjected to the same treatment, looked as though* they 

 would not hatch for four or five days yet. At this same date 

 (April 9) a lot of eggs taken on March (i, nine days after 

 the former lot, had already begun batching. This seems to 

 me to be a very wide margin of time for eggs which only take 

 from thirty to forty days to hatch. The time occupied in 

 hatching this year exceeds that of last season on account of the 

 severe cold weather we have had throughout March. The 

 eggs which were taken in thin layers on the inside of the glass 

 jars by rotating, as above described, have done very badly. 

 The others are doing fairly well, for smelt eggs. 



i sent Mr. F. N. Clark some eggs this year, cautioning him not 

 to throw them away no matter how badly they looked on the 

 outside, how much fungus there might be there, nor how foul 

 an odor might arise from them. At the same time I had fears 

 that he might do this; for in our experiments we have found 

 that the decaying eggs on the outside masses were so fold that 

 nothing but previous experience could have convinced us that 

 any good could have come from the inside of such a mass. 



Af ter looking the eggs over carefully I came to the conclu- 

 sion that it was a possible thing that the outside eggs died be- 

 cause they were exposed to the light, and made an attempt 

 to get more, in order to test this theory, but we were unable 

 to obtain them. I had arranged to divide the next lot of eggs 

 into two portions ; putting both into jars which were covered 

 to exclude the light, and gave one a strong and the other a 

 feeble circulation of water to test this method, whith I shall 

 do next year if the opportunity offers, for so far our work with 

 smelt has not proved completely satisfactory. We can 

 hatch forty or fifty per cent, and .as each little adult srnelc 

 has from thirty to forty thousand eggs we actually get a 

 great number of young fish, but we don't begin to get the 

 percentages of fry that we do in operating with the salmon, 

 the trout and the whitefish. I believe that we will reach this 

 result by continued experiment; and it is one of those interest- 

 ing questions which stimulate a worker to try and discover 

 the cause of this great mortality. 



When we remember the fact that a smelt goes up in swift 

 brooks and deposits its eggs on stones, it is hard to believe 

 that the eggs require a feeble circulation, as was suggested by 

 my friend, the late Professor Rice. I have never had the op- 

 portunity to examine a stream after the smelt had finished 

 spawning, and see exactly how these eggs were deposited in a 

 state of nature. But the Very fact that a little fish bears such 

 a great quantity of eggs within it, shows that nature has pro- 

 vided for a great loss at some portion of the life of the young, 

 either in the egg or afterward. Their exceedingly minute 

 size when hatched, perhaps a quarter of au inch in length 

 and of the diameter of a thread of No. 06 sewing cotton, ren- 

 ders them subject to be preyed upon by exceedingly small 

 fishes, and an ordinary brook trout, when first beginning to 

 feed, could probably accommodate half a dozen young smelts 

 just from the egg in its stomach without inconvenience to 

 itself. The young can swim as soon as they are hatched, and 

 we confine them with brass wire cloth. No. 30 mesb. 



Mr. Carman, who supplies me with smelts from Brook- 

 haven, L. I., wrote on April 3, that he had taken a few more 

 spawners, the last of the season, and we sent for them imme- 

 diately; but before the arrival of the can, the fish had 

 spawned, therefore we can place the extreme .limits of their 

 spawning season on his stream, this year, at February 25 and 

 April S. Some two weeks before the first-mentioned date, Mr. 

 Blackford obtained some smelts from Long Island which were 

 full of spawn, and 1 sent a man down there for more, but we 

 failed to get any that were ripe. The fish which came to 

 market had eggs extruding from their dead bodies; probably- 

 caused by handling and the jolting of the railwav on theij< 

 journey to the market. It is proposed this year, at the sug- 

 gestion of Gen. R. U. Sherman, of the New York Commissi6n, 

 to plant a few in the Adirondack waters and see if they Can- 

 not be estabhshed there as they have been in the fresh waters 

 of "Vermont; and the result of this experiment will be watched 

 with great interest. 



I have spoken of the egg of the smelt as "glutinous," but 

 "adhesive" would be a better term. On one side of the egg 

 there is a filmy appendage which is the means of attachment 

 to whatever it comes in contact with, and under the micro- 

 scope it appears like an empty egg shell folded over and 

 attached to one side of the egg only, while the other side is 

 clean and round. 



Mr. Clark— Mr. Chairman, I would say in regard to the 

 eggs that Mr. Mather sent me at North ville that I found them 

 in just the condition that he said I probably would. The first 

 glance would give to a fishculturist the idea that of course 

 they were all bad; but upon further examination, when you 

 dig into them, you find that there is a small percentage of 

 them that are good. I should say of those eggs that were sent 

 to us about 15 to 20 per cent, were good. While Mi-. Mather 

 was reading his paper a thought occurred to me, and in the 

 recital of his different experiments I listened to hear him say 

 that he had tried one way, which he did not. About seven 

 years ago, I think it was, I was at Gloucester, Mass., at the 

 first time they were handling the cod for the United States 

 Fish Commission. Among other experiments which Profes- 

 sor Baird tried was that of taking eggs of the Labrador her- 

 ring, which are adhesive. They stick solid, and I tried a 

 great many different experiments in taking eggs, and one of 

 the ways was taking them on glass, which I found to be the 

 best; and I think if a person is going to take adhesive eggs of 



any kind and let them stick to anything, he will find glass the 

 best of anything. At that time I made a box for hatching on 

 glass. It was a small trough, with places in the side for the 

 glass to slide down. One glass went to the bottom and the 

 top was half an inch under water. The next glass stood half 

 an inch above the water, like that so on down through, keep- 

 ing the eggs that stuck to the glass on the side toward the 

 water, so that the water passed up right by the eggs, and in 

 that way we succeeded in hatching a better percentage than 

 in any other way. I should think it would be well to try 

 experiments with the smelt the same as they do with the wall- 

 eyed pike, which I think Mr. Nevins and others have tried. 

 1 have, and 1 think the Michigan Commission has tried the 

 same thing. 



Mr. Mather— Mr. President, I would say iu connection with 

 what Mr. Clark has said that I had read very carfully his ex- 

 periments with the herring and thought that his arrangement 

 of glass slides was an excellent thing. As I understand it, 

 that is for hatching in troughs, we have put them on the 

 inside of a jar, as I have described, keeping it whirling and 

 letting them adhere on a thin layer. I have now a theory, 

 which of course remains to be proved, that it is the light that 

 is fatal, because we find where those eggs adhere in masses, 

 perhaps the size, of a hickory nut or larger, that all the outside 

 eggs become bad after a while and are covered with fungus, 

 but you take hold of this mass and break it open and you will 

 fiud the little fellow inside there all right, protected not only 

 from the action of the light, but from the water. I don't 

 understand how water can get into this mass. If I had been 

 going to hatch them in troughs I should certainly have used 

 the apparatus that Mr. Clark devised, and which I think is an 

 exceedingly good thing for that mode of hatching. 



Mr. Bissell— I would like to say a word about that smelt 

 business. If it is the light that affects the eggs of the smelt, 

 would not the light affect them in the natural conditions in a 

 small stream? May it not rather, or more likely be, the motion 

 of the water? I have been told by our men in the Michigan 

 Fish Commission that one of the reasons that brook trout eggs 

 cannot be handled successfully in the jars is that they have 

 too much motion. Mr. Marks told me the other day when I 

 proposed that during the first stages of handling tiie trout 

 eggs they might be put into the jars and run in great numbers, 

 and then as the bad eggs were worked off, place them upon 

 trays and hatch them there— he said no, that would not 

 answer, because if they had too violent a motion of the water 

 it would addle the eggs. He said that had been proved by 

 experiment. It seems to me that is much more likely to be 

 the cause of it than the action of the light, particularly at the 

 season of the year when the eggs are cast. 



Mr. Mather— As regards brook trout in jars, no doubt the 

 violent motion would be injurious to them, but where you 

 have a little stop cock you can turn that and you can give 

 them as much or as little motion as you like, and you can have 

 a flow. The trouble in hatching trout in jars begins after you 

 have got them hatched and they he clown in masses on each 

 other and smother. 



Mr. Clark— Yes, but the jar is not the thing for handling 

 brook trout. 



Mr. Bissell — You must have a good strong current in 

 order to carry them up and float them in the jars. 



Mr. Mather— With regard to the smelt eggs, I have never 

 seen the. natural stream after the smelt eggs were deposited 

 by the fish. I have been on the ground before the hatching 

 season began, and have seen them take smelts in very swift 

 water, and it is a possible thing that the smelt eggs that are 

 taken and adhere to the top of the stones die, while those 

 which get into the crevices may escape. I don't state it as a 

 fact; I simply state it as a possible thing. They do spawn in 

 tolerably swift water. That I know, for I know the streams 

 where they spawn. 



Mr. Bissell— Are they shallow streams? 



Mr. Mather— Quite shallow and running over stones. 1 

 have seen them in New Jersey pretty well up on the Hacken- 

 sack River, and I have seen them at Locust Valley on Long 

 Island where they take them, and they are both rapid streams. 

 The stream at Locust Valley is a trout stream, very swift, 

 running very rapid, and the eggs which we took last year on 

 stones and placed in our hatching troughs, where we hatch 

 the brook trout eggs, all came to nothing, that is those in a 

 single layer, but where there were four or five deep we could 

 pick off the top layer of bad eggs and find them good under- 

 neath. 



Mb. Clark— I would like to ask Mr. Mather a question. 

 What percentage did I understand you to say— that you had 

 forty to fifty per cent, of good eggs? 



Mb. Mather— That is about what we have now. 



Mr. Clark— Well, Mr. Chan-man, I don't think, with any 

 adhesive eggs that were ever hatched, where you leave them 

 to adhere, I don't think there is anybody ever hatched any- 

 thing better than 40 to 50 per cent, of any kind, and I don't 

 think they ever will. We don't with the herring, and we call 

 it good. 



Dr. Sweeney— It seems to me that from all the eggs that 

 are supplied in the spawning of these fish whose eggs are glut- 

 inous or adhesive, there is a provision of nature that the outer 

 layer of the eggs act as a protective coat to the inner mass, 

 and as the gas permeates through the tissues and the air 

 reaches the eggs on the principle of displacement, as the in- 

 ternal layer of eggs consumes the air, it isresupplied from the 

 outside, and this putrid mass of eggs on the outside which 

 seems so unproductive, may be in part as a defense also 

 against animals, and is not the experience of Mi-, Mather go- 

 ing to show that these eggs that seem to be spoiled on the out- 

 side, work no detriment to those within. That may be the 

 principle, that the adhering mass of eggs is a protective coat 

 to ^he inner stratum. It maybe the explanation that the gas 

 or .vitalized air from the water reaches the eggs through the 

 oritur stratum. 



{/a GOLD MEDAL FOR PROFESSOR BAIRD. 



I3ROFESSOR BAIRD, U. S. Commissioner of Fish and Fish- 

 . eries, has recently received from the Department of Fish- 

 culture of the Lower Seine, France, a gold" medal as an ac- 

 knowledgment for some valuable sendings of fish ova. The 

 medal was designed by Oudine. On the obverse is represented 

 a female head bound with a chapiet of cereals. Legend: 

 "Republique Fiancaise." On the reverse is inscribed "M. 

 Spencer F. Baird, Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries," and 

 the legend "Departemeut de la Seine Inferieure. La Commis- 

 sion de Pisciculture, 30 Novembre, 1885." The medal is about 

 the size of a double eagle. It will be placed on exhibition in 

 the north hall of the National Museum. 



THE NEW YORK FISH COMMISSION. -The last Legis- 

 lature refused to pass the bill creating the office of Chief of the 

 Game Protectors, which was designed mainly to relieve Com- 

 missioner R. U. Sherman, the Secretary of the Board, from 

 the burden of looking after the protectors and doing the 

 drudgery of the Fish Commission, which had somehow fallen 

 upon him. In consequence of the failure of this bill, which 

 Gen. Sherman hoped would remove a load of thankless labor 

 by him gratuitously performed to the shoulders of a paid offi- 

 cial, the Commissioners of Fisheries at their last meeting 

 authorized Mr. Sherman to employ a secretary to attend to all 

 the work which falls to such an officer. He named Mr. H. IJ. 

 Thompson, of Brooklyn, a gentleman well known in angling 

 circles and one who is every way qualified for the place by 

 both knowledge and disposition. The other members of the 

 Board have indorsed the nomination, and we hope that Mr. 

 Thompson will find it convenient to accept the duties. 



Unmt 



FIXTURES. 



Every pair of Allen's bow-facing oars warranted. Send for little 

 catalogue free. Fred A. Allen, Monmouth, III.— Adv. 



FIELD TRIALS. 



Nov. 8.— Second Annual Field Trials of the Western Field Trials 

 Association, at Abilene, Kan. E. C. Van Horn, Secretary, Kansas 

 City, Mo. 



Nov. 22.— Eighth annual field trials of the Eastern Field Trials Club, 

 at High Point, N. C. W. A. Coster, Secretary, Flatbush, Kings 

 county, N. Y. 



DOG SHOWS. 



Jidy SO, 21, 22 and 23.— Milwaukee Dog Show. John D. Olcott, Man 

 ager, Milwaukee, Wis. 



Aug. 21, 2.% 26 and 27.— First Annual Dog Show of the Latonia 

 Agricultural Association, Covington, Ky. George H. Hill, Manager, 

 P. O. Box 78, Cincinnati, O. 



Sept. 3, 9 and 10.— Homellsville, N. Y.. Dog Show, Farmers' Club 

 Fair. J. O. Fellows, Superintendent, Hornellsville, 



Sept, 14, 15, 10 and 17.— First fall dog show of the New Jersey Ken 

 nel Club, Waverly, N. J. A. P. Vredenburg, secretary, Bergen Point 

 N. J. 



A. K. R.-SPECIAL NOTICE. 

 rpHE AMERICAN KENNEL REGISTER, for the registration of 

 ■*- pedigrees, etc. (with prize lists of all shows and trials), is pub- 

 lished every month. Entries close on the 1st. Should be in early. 

 Entry blanks sent on receipt of stamped and addressed envelope. 

 Registration fee (50 cents) must accompany each entry. No entries 

 inserted unless paid in advance. Yearlv subscription $1.50. Address 

 "American Kennel Register," P. O. Boa 2832, New York. Number 

 of entries already printed 3810. 



HORNELLSVILLE DOG SHOW. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



We have been solicited to give a bench show of dogs in con- 

 nection with our exposition to be held Sept. 7 to 10. To as- 

 certain definitely whether such a show would be acceptable 

 to the leading dog fanciers of the country or not we addressed 

 personal letters to nearly all of them. Their replies and 

 promises to exhibit have led our board of directors to believe 

 that such a show will be not only acceptable to the breeders, 

 but a grand success for all interested. We shall issue a liberal 

 premium list at once which may be had by addressing 



C. W. Robinson, Secretary. 



We claim the dates Sept. 8, 9, 10 for our dog show to 

 be held here in conjunction with the Farmers' Club fair. 

 Our club is a regulaily incorporated institution under the 

 New York State laws, and aU premiums will be paid. We 

 will have good classes, good judges, good premiums, good at- 

 tendants, and exhibitors will not have to run the show, but it 

 will be run for them. J. Otis Fellows, Supt. Dog Show. 



Hornellsville, N. Y., June 8. 



A 5 



DOG SHOW NOTES. 



S we were busy taking notes along came an individual 

 whose jerky gait and unhappy expression of countenance 

 plainly betokened that something was wrong, in his estima- 

 tion at least. Halting in front of us he surlily demanded : 

 "Which of these dogs won the prize?" Before we could answer 

 him, a young fellow ? who appeared to grasp the situation, 

 pointed out as the winner one of the worst specimens in the 

 class and warmly praised it for the many good qualities it 

 possessed, scarcely looking at the animal. Our disgruntled 

 friend exclaimed, "That is the worst specimen in the show 

 by all odds." We then pointed at the winner, when he gave 

 a glance and caustically remarked, "That brute! Why he is a 

 great deal worse than the other, only look at him. " Just then 

 a well known fancier passed by, led by a wild-eyed exhibitor 

 who yanked a dog off his bench, and placing him in front of 

 the winner's stall, struck an attitude, the very personification 

 of supreme contempt, and in a withering tone demanded to 

 know if such an outrage was ever known. The fancier glanced 

 at the dog, and in a tone indicative of surprise, said: "Why, 

 your dog is the biggest." "Yes," said the owner, with an im- 

 patient gesture, "but the judge didn't see it." "And," con- 

 tinued the fancier, "has the longest tail." "I know it," said 

 the owner, violently swinging his arms, "but why didn't the 

 judge see it?" Stooping down the fancier examined his feet, 

 then looking up with wide open eyes exclaimed, "Why he has 

 got the biggest feet." This capped the climax. Wildly ges- 

 ticulating and stamping his feet, the irate owner burst out, 

 "I knew it all the time, but the blankety blanked judge never 

 looked at his feet." 



MEETING OF THE AMERICAN KENNEL CLUB. 



THE adjourned annual meeting of the American Kennel 

 Club was held at the Hoffman House on June 10. There 

 were present Messrs. J. O. Donner, of the Westminster Kennel 

 Club; C. J. Peshall, New Jersey; G. Edward Osborn, New 

 Haven, and following gentlemen holding proxies: A. P. Vre- 

 denburgh, Philadelphia; A. C. Wilmerding, Cleveland; A. E. 

 Rendle, Hartford, and J. O. Donner, Pittsburgh. Mr. Donner 

 was called to the chair. The regular order of business was 

 gone through and the folio wing officers elected for the ensuing 

 year: President, Mr. Elliot Smith, Westminster Kennel Club, 

 re-elected; First Vice-President, Mr. G-. Edward Osborn, New 

 Haven Kennel Club; Second Vice-President, Mr. W. H. 

 Child, Philadelphia Kennel Club; Secretary, Mr. A. P. 

 Vredenburgh, New Jersey Kennel Club ? re-elected. Upon 

 the proposed amendment to the constitution being adopted, 

 making the office of secretary and treasurer one, Mr. Vreden- 

 burgh had those dual duties thrust upon him. All the old 

 ' oommitties are to hold over. 



At the meeting on May 6 Mr. Peshall gave notice that he 

 would offer a resolution at the annual meeting to the effect 

 that no member of a club should officiate as judge at a bench 

 show given by his own club. Mr. Peshal duly offered this 

 resolution, but after a lengthy and generall discussion of. the 

 subject, he withdrew it. 



The committee on credentials reported favorably on the ap- 

 plication for admission of the Rhode Island Kennel Club. 



The Chicago special prize matter again came up before the 

 club, but only in the way of the committee asking for more 

 time. 



Mr. C. J. Peshall was appointed a committee of one to draw 

 I up a code of proceedure to govern all cases of appeal that may 

 be brought before the club in the future. 



A protest was made by the Brooklyn Kennels against the 

 awards in the Miscellaneous classes at the late New York 

 show, on the grounds that the winners were not of recognized 

 breeds. On motion it was referred to the Westminster Kennel 

 Club. 



The secretary was instructed to communicate with the two 

 dog registers published in this country with the view of secur- 

 ing control of them in the interest of the A. K. C. 



The question as to whether champion light-weight dogs 

 should go into open or champion heavy-weight classes was 

 generally discussed and finally laid over until the next meet- 

 ing for further consideration. 



The committee appointed to investigate as to the wins of 

 which clubs giving shows prior to the establishment of the 

 A. K. C. should be recognized by the club, reported progress. 



The meeting was adjourned, subject to the call of the Presi- 

 dent. 



THE THREE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND TEN 

 PEDIGREE REGISTERS in the American Kennel Register 

 include interesting, incalculable, inexhaustible and invaluable 

 information indispensable in intelligent in(or outbreeding. 



