378 
crest depth of snow, and were consequently in . a stateof JJarj 
S for nearly two month* 
gleaning, and yet, 8 ,h0U ^i 1 f ,l of the food that lay bid under 
trained from touehing a moree of th ^ Qf tbeir fever . 
* The p??visioSr were never removed, but al- 
Stncken lodgeB. Th P following summer, 
lowed to mold and rot a y “ £ Hgh b g ome of them have 
mas^ret^thM^di^ v^a^lwy 
for tie outlay in greatly improved spinU .nd^ealtt.^^ 
[For additional information of Nepigon 
Jo Stbba* for Aug. 14 and 21, and bept. 4, 1873. Also 
later flies of the paper. — E d. F. & S.] 
S&l §uU l W- 
SHAD HATCHING. 
Work of tuk United “s^Ites F.sn Commission at 
Havre dk Grace. 
/"'vUITE near the head water of the Chesapeake Bay lies 
the little island of Spesutia, near to where the Sus- 
quehanna and Elk rivers empty into the bay. Scmei nx miles 
from Spesutia is the town of Havre de Grace, in Mal j' 8 “ d , 
Just there, at the narrows, in a quiet channel, are anchored 
the spacious barges which serve as the hatching to'iscs.the 
dormitories and offices of the U. S. Commission. At the in- 
vitation of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the 
Hon Spencer F. Baird, and of the Assistant Commissioner of 
Fisheries, Prof. J. W. Milner, a representative of tins paper 
paid, one day last week, quite a lengthy visit to tkc batching 
establishment. Now, theoretically, your writing 
may be quite well informed, but really, practically, he may 
be said to know nothing at all. Such confessions are always 
—carried somewhat to an extreme— is to bring into promi 
FOR EST AND STREAM. 
cents from the assistant commisaionta •for . ripe £ 
A half a dollar is then the asvarf for a^vtd female ^ovtmg 
her eggs are in good order, but noting 1 ^ fl 8 b- 
fruitlul. The mill of the male is not paid for. no , 
erman may take from bis nets quite a numbe d for 
fish, and not one of them may prod^ eggs exactly g» a 
fertilizing. The eggs may be too hard, , the fish will not stnp 
their fertilizing milt as are the egga °* tb ® thc neig b. 
Off then go the spawn gatherers, remaining in t g 
S-IsSmsSS-S’s 
and the man or boat who can bring together the 
sssssp 
k Thp fishermen are waiting for some one of their own 
mr'ty to begS. No Z X.kc the initiative At las. one 
boat 7 awavoff, far down the line, lowers carefully bis lanter*, 
for each end of the gill-net has a buoyed light to 
hundred soft lights are floating on the waves. The gdl-net, a 
wall of meshes, as it were, maybe a hundred fathoms long, 
floated with corks, goes down with the stream, aDd the shad 
heading up stream from the channels, malting f° r the flats, 
get caught in it. Now the gillers row up and down their 1 me 
of l nets, taking out the shad. The spawn-catcbers make for he 
men who are tending their nets and secure the fish. In busy 
times when the shad are running free, one boat will serve 
about four gilling boats. The cry all along the line is : Got 
aD ' 7 'he ^awn take^ thus theiMabors in boarding the 
fishermen. But their labors do not end here. Just as Boon 
as the ripe fish are procured the stripping must take place. 
Sd the milt must be had. One milter to three spawners 
mav do for a pinch, but an abundance of the male fertilizing 
D i rtnn fnr onp i<? the better. The manipulation of the 
eggs in the boat must be carefully attended to-Thoaghit may 
Storm and blow, and the rain may come pelting down, it is 
the eggs which must be cared for. I rofessor Milner has 
riven 8 us about the actual process. Having secured the milt, 
® . i • - - 1 mnal flrv 
bnirhin" of the shad eggs. There are seventeen of the liatch- 
fnTcoSes alwavs coiug On looking into these cones one sees 
had egge Which gr. . White opaque 
and floconous, with a fungoid growth. * in matorit? 
such things would imagine that the b«degg9 we J JV 
Is the good eggs, perfectly sound and looking at firs like 
transparent pearls or water bubbles, escape the eye 1 he bad 
p(?es being lighter and rising to the surface, are the more i con 
spfcuous. S Thi 3 is really not the case, as the good eggs, in 
much larger quantity, being rather hard to make out remain 
nt the bottom and escape detection. All day and all night 
the water passes incessantly through the cones. The bad eggs 
nrp he in 2 constantly taken away by a net skimmer. The 
§?&£ 35?5£ TS KS S 
| ft sss a 
which, MUR cuts rpnort of Commissioners of Mary- 
be f o r e our rea der s. ( e ® e P t hat of making the move- 
® r „,,,nainnrcs the Ferguson method could be used with 
marked Advantage, and when, at the present station the cones 
the objection of too great wwr and tear l g| n J^dMiither 
■HiPil 
wimumm 
of excellence, putting aside ease in manipulation of the iFergu 
son jars is that the transparent medium Mlows everything to 
be visible It may be stated in very positive terms that the 
United States has developed no end L of E inventive ; sk.lli - 
which is taken in an almost dry' pan (thl pans -most in use United **** 3 ^ are 
being those which have a pranite glazing), the spawn is intro- vising , jn P d ^ t p P r01 ni n ence to the batching cone due to 
the vvater flow gradually. Then “'“wth. Sr“ wfl lli«. SiKTtwd™ days when due precaution. s 
twenty five, minutes of quiet allowed Wow ™ Sen After that time they die, probably from starvat on. 
decanted and fresh water is added. > fler a ^ bll ® “ P er ' . ^ aU Quantity in an ample supply of water, their 
ceptible increase in the size of the egg ^ apparent The egg When in J w * rolonged . This matter of transpor ter 
feeTt I S to Professor Milner, having been carefully 
- ... . - _ morpi-W , nf-rr‘Pntil»lo. to tllG tOUCb i 
stream wnicii may udu ^ il 
this year and were re thought wortbv of Pi 
ae charge of jjIt. r . N. ClarK. . or * aD f 
Major Ferguson on his own smaU steamer wifi be earned made, 5J 0Ugh the water, for the great shad nursery, interest, we found hard ^" k ^ lt 1 ^ 19 nh 1 n Q d Of Mvne the 
in all its completeness. Commission be- It is Ditch dark. The gleam of the lantern shows 11 o’clock 
The entire object of the United StaUs ^Fish Cwnm'ss o D©. " P^ narrow channel is threaded, and the steady puff- 
ing that of obtaining the largest number of npe ■ . f _ { tb litl i e engine on the batching barge is heard. In a 
cality near Havre de K n U ?e we are tied up fast. The boats are made secure, and 
this purpose. About May the shad ru p P , ire d men who have been rowing for three hours, emerge 
making ‘“‘J where the Susquehanna and with their buckets and turn over the eggs to Mr F. N Clark 
U - S - Hatching Station has the expert, who is all ready to nurse the eggs and produce the 
been placed, only some mile or two from ^ the b88t ^ sbi “^ ^The batching barge has an engine which keeps on working 
grounds. In the afternoon innumew ble g »c« set out on the r ij je J uaicn g b and ^ ^ al8o & mecbanical Bttach . 
Kbors to get ^ e or f 8 J m p0 Srkindo r wn^ “ tSere SI mSTor ^purpose w^’ shall presently describe. Along both 
netting some short time aiur sipam si. ins of the barge, under cover, are the cone-shaped hatching 
hustle and work at the ba ' cb ‘ D g after hS | Ctt n 8 due to Mr Charles Bell and Mr. Fred Mather, an ac- 
launch is in readiness, and out she g , S . hioh waB first given in the Fobest and Stream 
some seven or eight boats the : mo8t _o them ?gee rep 0 Tt of H. S. Fish Commissioners 1874-5, p. 372.) 
in them who are attached t» the ■ p J , heir net8 ^ ru .flv described, these are cones in which a steady flow of 
on the ground just as ^ soon as the Airmen cael t be apex below. The wider portion of the cone 
lu a lODg line, of Borne four miles or ®ore, when is Drotected with a rim of wire. This allows the overflow of the 
observing a certain fixed distance between the , enough P ler t0 enter j nt o a circular gutter and to pass off. In these 
their giUiog nets are in tbe r^^fouL The stoam S 7oTs the eggs are placed. An up movement of the eggs, a 
apart from one another so as not to ifoui ^ Ihe steam laune cone* cau6ed b the upward flow of 
nears them, the tow-rope !8 cast off, and away paddle tne quiet^ anu^grau^ ^ ^ ^ (han *' six Qr eight 
spawn-takers. . , tn .wontv cents a inches. The eggs are coming up all the time from the 
pirit^^'^S^^hermen to revive fifty | centre and fallin|, constant moiion being necessary for the 
iDg the’woDderfuT embryology of the shad. of , cours yQ n d 
fullest opportunities were afforded of examining the egg 
fish in all its stages of development. From Mr. Bice we hau 
the curious fact that monstrosity, so common in tbe trout, was 
exceedingly rare in sbud, but one single case having ever Detu 
presented to his notice. It became interesting for us to iorm 
some idea of the growth of shad, comparing them witn u 
growth of fowl. This data we thought would be advantage- 
ous if obtainable, in order to show that of all creatures t 
growth of fish was the most astounding- If such growtn 
comparatively expressed and well understood, we L sD ° __ 
suppose it would go far to allay popular impatience, reopi 
stupid people we must say— might be better satisfied tne 
allowing fish to grow. Professor Rice, having weighed s 
fish just from tbe egg, comes to this conclusion : that w 
the difference betweeu a chick just from the egg and a 
grown pullet would be about in the proportion of 1 to l u. 
a shad it would be 1 to 19,000 ; in other words, that a su«u 
which would weigh one prain when free from i he shell, ^ 
matured would probably have increased 19,000 times. ^ 
would be exceedingly curious to follow out some researen 
this kind, and as Professor Rice has kindly promised to n 
some drafts of young shad for us, we trust to be able to i 
i sent to our readers the actual results of hiB labors. 
