When this is drawn the water rushes out rapidly and carries most of the debris against the screen.  The fishes are excited, and, scurrying about, they loosen nearly all dirt from the bottom; what will not otherwise yield must be started with a brush, but after the first few weeks the brush has rarely to be used except to rub the debris through the outlet screen.  Owing to the inclination of the trough the water recedes from the upper end until the fishes lying there are almost wholly out of water, but, although they are left in that position sometimes for 10 or 15 minutes, no harm has ever been known to result.

It has been the common rule at the station to count all the embryos devoted to the process of rearing, either before or after hatching; to keep an accurate record of losses during the season, and to check the record by a recount in the fall.  When eggs are counted they are lifted in a teaspoon.

The counting of small fish is effected in this way:  The fish are first gathered in a fine, soft bag-net, commonly one made of cheese-cloth, and from this, hanging meanwhile in the water, yet so that the fish cannot escape, they are dipped out a few at a time, in a small dipper or cup, counted, and placed in a pail of water or some other receptacle.

This counting is generally preliminary to weighing, and in this case the fish, after counting, are placed in another bag-net, in which they are lowered, several hundred at a time, into a pail of water which has been previously weighed, and the increase noted.  With care to avoid transferring to the weighing pail any surplus water, this is a correct method and very easy and safe for the fish.

In conclusion, I submit some estimates of cost.  In September, 1893, we fed fry that were estimated at the close of the month to number 238,300.  There were also a few hundred larger fish.

From the known total outlay for food, attendance, and superintendence a suitable allowance is made for the maintenance of the older fish, and the balance is charged to the fry.  By this method we arrive at the following results: 

Cost...................Total........Per fish. 
Food                   $155.00      $0.00065
Attendance               99.79        .00042
Superintendence         205.96        .00086
Total                   460.75       0.00193

Applied to the rearing operations of 1891, a similar calculation gives us this result:  The fry that were carried through the season from June to October, inclusive, cost, for food, attendance, and superintendence, $0.0081 each; that is, about four-fifths of a cent each for the term of five months.

ARTICLE VII

NOTES ON THE CAPTURE OF ATLANTIC SALMON AT SEA AND IN THE COAST WATERS OF THE EASTERN STATES

By Hugh M. Smith, M. D., Assistant in charge of Division of Statistics and Methods of the Fisheries.

Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission, Vol. 14, Page 95, 1894.