78 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Eggs from dead fish . — On two occasions a ripe female was removed from the 
water, and after it had been dead 2 hours a few eggs were spawned and fertilized in 
the usual manner. A few eggs were spawned from time to time until the fish had 
been dead 34 hours. The following table gives the results : 
N umber of hours fish had been dead. 
Percentage of fer- 
tilization. 
Percent- 
age of eggs 
that died 
within 10 
days. 
First 
fish. 
Second 
fish. 
99 
98 
92 
94 
93 
89 
27 
10 
62 
3] 
31 
0 
100 
0 
100 
The first four lots of eggs of 2, 4, 6, and 8 hours were kept 26 days and were 
apparently entirely healthy at the end of that time. 
At another time eggs were taken from two fishes that had died in the water. 
One had been dead 1 hour, the other over 6 hours. Of the first, over 97 per cent 
hatched and were healthy fry; of the other, 85 per cent. 
From the above it is evidently safe to take the eggs from fishes that have been 
dead less than 5 hours, and fairly good results can be obtained up to 8 hours. 
Spotted eggs . — Sometimes a considerable number of eggs, a few weeks after 
fertilization, have a small, irregular white spot about the size of the head of a pin 
in the yolk near the surface. This does not mean that the egg is about to die. 
Fifteen such eggs were put into a separate basket, and all hatched as perfectly 
healthy fry excepting one, which died in breaking through the shell. The spot did 
not appear on the yolk-sac. 
Yellow eggs . — When eggs are nearly ready to hatch a yellowish fluid sometimes 
collects around the embryo. This does not affect them very seriously, as most of 
them hatch into healthy alevins. 
The critical period for eggs . — It is a well-known fact that at a certain stage in 
development, from about the sixth to the sixteenth day, eggs are much more liable 
to injury than at other stages. When first taken they can be handled with com- 
parative roughness with impunity. At Battle Creek in 1897 the spawning platform 
was about half a mile from the hatchery. The eggs were hauled this distance over 
a road that lacked much of being smooth, yet the loss traceable to such handling 
was slight. Of nearly 700,000 eyed eggs sent from Battle Creek to Olema at one 
time, less than 300 were killed in shipping. They were hauled about 10 miles in a 
heavy wagon, were on the train some 15 hours, and out of the water 48 hours. At 
the time of shipment the eggs were 43 days old. But at an earlier date, when 6 to 
16 days old, such treatment would have killed every egg. 
For purposes of comparison 60,000 eggs from several fishes, fertilized in the 
ordinary manner, were mixed in a can at the spawning platform, and at the hatchery 
were equally divided between two baskets. The eggs of one of the baskets were 
picked over daily regardless of results in order to remove the dead or addled eggs. 
The eggs in the other were picked over in the same manner on the first, third, 
twenty- second, twenty-fourth, and forty-first days, and occasionally after that date. 
The former of these experiments was called No. 7, the latter No. 6. As a further test 
