ALASKA SALMON INVESTIGATIONS IN 1900. 
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frames are of'clear sugar pine and redwood, Id inches wide by five-eighths inch thick. 
The netting is five-eighths inch in the length of the mesh and 6 meshes to the inch, 
which is found the best size for redfish eggs; netting with meshes per inch has 
been used, but this is a tritie large. Baskets with a single wooden frame around the 
top are found quite rigid enough and have a great advantage in the small space 
occupied by a large number when stored away, the absence of the lower frame 
admitting of very snug nesting. 
While the capacity of each trough is 5 baskets, it is preferred to use not more 
than 4 per trough, reserving the fifth space for “fleeting’’ in cleaning. It has been 
found that redfish eggs require the cleanest of troughs and baskets, as well as the 
most careful handling. The troughs are therefore cleaned as frequently as circum- 
stances will admit, never less than once a week, and as often as every other day 
when possible. Thus, by having the fifth space unoccupied the entire trough can 
be thoroughly scrubbed without lifting a single basket of eggs; all the baskets are 
moved one space toward the lower end of the trough and returned to their original 
positions one at a time as their respective spaces are cleaned. By fleeting in this 
manner jars are avoided and the eggs remain water-borne at all times — an especially 
essential desideratum during the tender period. 
As previously mentioned, a full basket of redfish eggs is reckoned as containing 
75,000. Thus, with 51 troughs equipped with 4 baskets each, or 204 baskets, the 
hatching-house capacity may be conservatively given as 15,300,000 eggs; and by 
crowding in 5 baskets to a trough, making a total of 255 for the house, the capacity 
can be increased to more than 19,000,000. These figures merely show the number 
of eggs which may be placed in the baskets at one time, or what the hatching- house 
will hold without using the baskets over again. Generally it does not follow that 
this is the capacity for the season, but unfortunately it does at Karluk. Here the 
period of incubation is so long that eggs taken at the very opening of the salmon 
run, saj' the latter part of May, will not be hatched out until the close of the season, 
late in September, after which but a trifling percentage of the spawn is taken. The 
number of egg's basketed prior to July 1 is also quite small, and the gain in capacity 
is therefore too trifling to be taken into consideration. Hence these figures may be 
accounted correct as the}'' stand. 
It is unfortunate that a full series of data is not available for an analysis of the 
period of incubation under the various prevailing conditions. Until this season ( 1900) 
the superintendent has been unable to keep complete records of anything beyond the 
merest outline of the season’s work. A detailed record of temperatures and the 
duration of the various stages of incubation, representative of baskets of normal 
eggs taken at regular intervals during the stripping season, is being kept now, and it 
is believed this material will be available for study later. These observations will 
be carried on until the last of the fry shall have been planted. Such data, however, 
as could be obtained is herewith submitted, believing that much of it will be of 
interest and that possibly some of it may prove of value in the future. 
In 1896 spawn-taking commenced on August 29 and was continued at intervals 
of two or three days until November 28, 3,200,000 eggs, in fair condition, being 
basketed during this time. Considering the diseased state of most of the stock fish 
secured, that this was the first season of operation, and that the plant was still in 
