226 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
revolving axle of tlie wheel, the bearings of which do not need to be oiled oftenerthan 
once a day. 
For the first fifteen years of operations at this station after 1873 the current wheel 
was relied upon exclusively to furnisb the water supply for the hatcbing-house. A 
steam engine and minei’’s pump were then introduced as a reserve agency to furnish 
water in the event of any accident to the wheel, and in 1895 a ditch was built to take 
water from Wiley Creek to the hatching-house by force of gravitation. The ditch is 
nearly IJ miles long, and furnishes an excellent water supjily during the rainy 
season, when the river is too high to manipulate the wheel. 
At the Clackamas station, in Oi’egon, the water supply was first obtained from 
tlie Clackamas Eiver by a current wheel operating a Chinese pump, which lifted the 
water 27 feet into a flume running to the hatching-house. Subsequently water was 
taken from a point on Clear Creek, about a quarter of a mile distant, but owing to the 
nature of the bed of the creek no dam could be made to stay there, and now the 
water siipj^ly is pumped up from the Clackamas by a steam pump. 
Ati Fort Gaston station, in Humboldt County, Cal., as also at the branch station 
at Eedwood near by, the water supply for the hatching-house is taken from spring-fed 
streams in the neighboring hills. 
To return again to Baird station, I will say that after the salmon are measured 
out and placed in hatching-trays very little is done to them except a slight picking- 
over and rinsing off of sediment until the “delicate stage” is reached, which is just as 
the spinal column is forming. Then they are left alone until the distinct line of the 
backbone, becoming visible in the embryo, indicates that the delicate stage is passed. 
Then the white eggs are carefully picked out, and after a little, when the appearance 
of the choroid pigment (eye-spots) shows that the eggs can stand comparatively rough 
usage, they are “dippered,” or the water otherwise actively agitated in order to kill 
off all the emirty eggs. When these are removed the eggs are ready to be packed for 
shipment or to be hatched, as the case may be. 
If the eggs are to be hatched, wire trays are used with every other strand length- 
wise of the bottom of the tray removed, which enables the newly-hatched fish, as fast 
as they emerge from the eggs, to slip down into the trough below, where they can be 
kept, if desired, or whence they can be easily removed, if necessary. 
PACKING THE EGGS. 
The packing of eggs for shipment from this station over long distances has 
always been the same. The packing boxes are made of half-inch pine, 2 feet square 
and 1 foot deep. At the bottom of the box is iilaced a thick layer of moss, then comes 
one thickness of mosquito bar, then a layer of eggs, then mosquito bar again, then 
other successive layers of moss, netting, eggs, netting, and so on to the middle of the 
box. Here a firm wooden iiartition is fastened in, and the packing renewed above the 
partition in the same manner as below. The cover is then screwed on the top and 
another box packed. When two boxes are ready, they are placed in wooden crates, 
made large enough to allow a space of 3 inches on all sides of the boxes. This space 
is filled with hay to protect the eggs against changes of temperature. The cover 
being j)ut on the crate and the marking done, the eggs are ready to ship. 
I should have added that in the middle of the crate an open space is left about 
4 inches in depth between the two boxes of eggs for ice. As soon as the crates arrive 
