106 
REPORT OF BOARD OF FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONERS. 
Where 40 per cent or more of the eggs from one fish were fertilized, 
they could be hatched without much difficulty. When there was a - 
lower per cent of fertilization the unfertilized eggs became fungus 
infected, and between the twelfth and twenty-fourth hour after taking 
they became lighter than the water and rose and floated out of the jar 
with the current, no matter how slight this current was. These 
unfertilized eggs became attached to each other and to the live and 
developing eggs, and when they floated out of the jar they took many 
live eggs with them. In jars where there was only 10 per cent or 15 
per cent of fertilized eggs, all might be lost in this way. 
The milt of the male in nearly all cases showed active spermatazoa, 
thus narrowing the trouble down to the egg or the method of fertili¬ 
zation. Both the wet and the dry methods of fertilization were used, 
with no very appreciable difference. What difference there was, was 
in favor of the wet method. Frequently a lot of eggs were taken which 
did not swell properly in the water, showing they were immature. 
Most of the lots of eggs taken were a pale green color, but a few lots 
had a golden green color. The golden shade is caused by a pigment in 
the germinal disc. It is probable that the eggs are not mature until 
this pigment is formed, but some lots hatched a small per cent of fish 
where the pigment did not show, and some with the pigment very 
noticeable hatched no fish. The better lots of eggs showed the pigment. 
We reached the conclusion that the trouble had been the eggs of the 
fish taken were slightly immature and incapable of fertilization. 
We found that with the use of copper sulphate (1 part copper 
sulphate to 100,000 parts of water) it was possible to hatch lots where 
there was only 5 per cent of good eggs. The fungus growth on the 
outside of the bad eggs was killed and the good eggs would not adhere 
to them. A rather strong current could be turned on and the good 
eggs would remain in the jar and the bad ones would mostly pass out. 
The fish hatched from these eggs were just as strong as those hatched at 
the same time without copper sulphate. The young fish after hatching 
are able to stand this strength of copper sulphate. The yolk sac is 
absorbed seven days after hatching. 
The run of bass at Bouldin Island during this season was very light. 
Most of the fish taken by the fishermen were quite green, and by the 
middle of May they caught both green fish and fish that had already 
spawned. The taking of a female bass with ripe eggs was evidently a 
lucky chance, and we had not been able to locate their spawning place. 
A gauze tow net was used at different times during the season in the 
river, the sloughs, the flooded islands, and on the tule flats in the hope of 
catching a young bass just hatched, or eggs before hatching, and thus 
get some clue to where the striped bass spawns, but without results. 
