Report of Fish Commissioners. 
475 
prominent among these are laws prescribing the minimum size of 
the meshes of gill-nets. These measures are right enough, but they 
are behind the times. The fact is well established that but an in¬ 
finitely small proportion of the fish-spawn annually deposited in 
the lakes, bays, and rivers ever come to maturity. The eggs are 
mostly devoured by other fish. In the light of the experience of 
the present day, then, the true remedy is to hatch the eggs by arti¬ 
ficial means, and place the young fish in the waters of the State. 
The process has long since passed beyond the limits of an experi¬ 
ment. Its success it a fixed fact. The streams of the east, that 
were depleted of shad, have been re-stocked, so that the present 
season the fisheries have been more remunerative than for many 
years before. 
“ Pensaukee has been selected as a location for one of the hatch¬ 
ing-houses, for several reasons: There is an abundant supply of 
water in the Pensaukee River, and the dam is located so near the 
shore that the eggs may be taken there in a few minutes; the fish¬ 
eries at Pensaukee offer abundant facilities for procuring eggs; and 
last, but not least, Mr. F. B. Gardner has a building suitably located, 
the use of which he offered to donate to the Commissioners. 
“ We visited the hatching-house on Friday last, in company with 
Mr. A. S. Coleman, of the Gardner House, Pensaukee, and Mr. 
Masterson, of Peshtigo. The room employed is the lower part of 
the old water-mill, about half a mile from the bay shore. They com¬ 
menced operating here October 14, since which time the room has 
been fitted up, a flume built, tapping the dam more than a foot be¬ 
low low-water mark, and some four or five feet below the present 
height of the water; the necessary troughs have been put in, and 
300,000 eggs secured. The mill is directly below the dam, and the 
flume enters at the side of the room. The flume consists of one 
box inside another, the space between being filled with sawdust to 
prevent freezing. Running at a right angle with the flume along 
the upper side of the room and connected with it is a long trough 
with waste-gate at the end. Beneath this are four hatching-troughs 
running crosswise of the room, with a faucet from the main water- 
trough over the upper end of each; thus the quantity of flow of 
the water may be regulated by the turning of the faucets. Each 
hatching-trough is nine feet long, perhaps two and a half or three 
feet wide, and five or six inches deep. They are rough, wooden 
