5.-THE MOST RECENT METHODS OF HATCHING FISH EGGS. 
BY WILLIAM F. PAGE. 
The purpose of this article is to attempt to establish a proper basis for the work of 
hatching lish eggs. The writer believes that a larger measure of success can be 
acliieved by the use of the McDonald universal automatic hatching jar for developing 
not only semi-buoyant but heavy fish eggs. The results of my experience and obser- 
vation during the past seven years are herein embodied. 
At the Central Station of the U. S. Fish Commission and at other hatcheries the 
following species of fish eggs have been successfully hatched in this apparatus : Shad, 
Whitefish, Brook trout, California trout, Eangeley trout. Lake trout, Atlantic salmon, 
California salmon, and Land-locked salmon. 
THE WATER. 
So much has been written on the subject of water, the kinds best adapted co 
the purpose, and the kinds that can be made to answer; the highest and lowest tem- 
peratures allowable ; the absolute clearness desirable ; and the best means of aerat- 
ing, filtrating, etc., that a delicacy is felt in entering on this branch of the subject. 
Undoubtedly temperature has au important bearing upon fish-culture. Nature’s laws 
of heat and cold when rudely violated will work injury to fish as well as man. 
It is unquestionable that clear water offers many advantages; the condition of the 
eggs and fry can be better ascertained, and the labor of removing the sediment is 
obviated. Ordinary river-water, such as is furnished for household purposes in most 
of the larger cities on the Atlantic slope, is capable of doing excellent hatching work 
for nearly all the kinds of fish spawning in fresh water, though scarcely any of it 
south of Maine is callable of rearing any of the species of Salmonidie. No better water 
for hatching can be found than that in the cities bordering on the Great Lakes. It 
may be stated, as a general rule, that water suitable for drinking purposes is avail 
able for hatching fish. Though the water be very muddy, filtration is not absolutely 
necessary for hatching, and any one who has been compelled to work with the “ wire 
screens for coarse trash,” “ bagging for small trash,” and “flannel trays for fine mud,” 
can testify how arduous and totally unavailing such efforts have been. Filters for 
hatching are not the necessity now that they once were, because the hatching 
apparatus is changed. In the autumn of 1888, while at the centennial exposition of 
the Ohio Valley and Central States, held in Cincinnati, Ohio, I had charge of the 
hatching of 45,000 California salmon eggs. At the time of their arrival the tempera- 
ture of the water was 78° Fahr. and it was quite muddy even for Ohio River water. 
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