Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-06-05
BABY SHAD AND CARP.
Matching Them Out Near the MOnu-
ment-How DIR. Hessel Hunts Snakes.

ment-How DR.. Hessel Hunts Snakes.
DIR. Hessel, curator of the carp ponds and su-
perintendent Of shad propagation at the foot
of the Washington monument, is making an
effort to rival st. Patrick as an anti-ophidian
operator.
STAR reporter learned that water snakes
have been a very serious pest at the ponds.
They are voracious devourers Of young fish,
lying in wait for them in the shallow water
near the banks, and gliding stealthily up
behind each fnny victim, which finds it
self swallowed before it has had time to
fairly realize the nature of the tragic occur
renee. One snake will consume, on an aver
age, at least SIX little carp or shad per diem.
and at this rate it will be seen that a few of
them, with ordinary sppesites, are likely to
shockingly deplete the stock in a preserve
within a comparatively brief period. How
plentiful these destructive reptiles are in DIR.
HesseIs watery domain may be judged by the
fact that during the past twelyemonth he has
himself killed / 300 of them.
The doctors method Of killing snakes is
peculiar; he Stays them with a parlor rifle,
which is just like an ordinary rife. save that
the bore is very small and the bullet and
charge OF powder corresponding. With this
formidable weapon in hand it il the favorite
pastime of his leisure hours to patrol the
sNS OANS WIN
gazing ahead ~wistfully until now and then per-
chance he sees a reptile head protruding from
the water. 1t is a small mark to hit, but
the distinguished curator's aim ia IN
failing and IT his particular pride always to
break the snakes neck between the base of the
skull and the first vertebra. This accomplished,
the prey invariably gives up the ghost and the
sportsman looks out for the next. Sometimes
he invites friends to join him in this manly ex-
erclse, but 1t Is understood that none of them
I approach the doctor in acCuracyo of YnarEspaap-
ship. His success may be estimated IN a meas
ure by the fact that he has already cleared
the ophidians out of all the ponds but one or
two toward the west that are appropriated to
carp. He says that people hereabout call them
water moccasins," but that they are not in his
opinion actually such. He knows positively.
however, that they have destroyed millions Of
his young tsh, which would otherwise have ar
rived at adult age in all probability and lived
careers of usefulness in the world.
HOW sHAD CAME INTO EXISTENCE.
DR.. Hessel says he knows just how the shad
first came into existence. 1t is an old story,
familiar for hundreds of years past to the
aborigines OF this country. There was once a
man who was very much prosecuted by his
mother-in-law, and things got so bad at last
that he ran away. taking his two little sons
with hin. By and by they came to a wide
river-supposed to have been the Po-
tomac-and there was no way of get
hhAS oNAObS save htoUSu nc dsslStltuCc
of a very large and amiable crane who stood
near the river bank. The crane said that he
would take them over, and they mounted upon
his back. But they were warned by the crane
that they must on no account touch the sore
spot on hl3 head. for If they did SO he would
throw them into the river. However. they
were landed safely on the other side, and. hay
ing thanked the crane for his kindness, made
off as fast they could.
Now it so happened that the mother-in-law
rruS a uifah anA thai ,r.na hol L.-lI. -.
back to the hither shore Of the river when She
appeared, having been enabled, through her
diabollcal art, to travel with extraordinary
swiftness.
1T will give ne great pleasure to carry you
across" said the amiable crane; .'but you must
on no account touch the sore spot on my head.
for II You do L will throw you into the river
So the old witch started on the cranes back
to cross the stream. Ii was quite a long pas
sage and she could not help fixing her atten-
ton upon the sore spot on the birds head and
wondering why he objected so to having it
touched. Finally she could not resist the
temptation to put one finger gently on it, upon
which the crane Immediately threw her into
the river. She could not swim, and it shortly
happened that she actually dissolved all away,
floating down the stream in the shape of a
whitish substance resembling shad spawn.
Such, in fact. it was, and in this manner this
delicious hsh hrst came into the world. Al all
events that is the Indian legend.
THE SPAWNING OF sHAp
is carried on at the building OF the fish
commission About twenty jars of glass,
holding 5000, 900 eggs, are used. Each
one has water running constantly into it
through a glass pipe, which goes down to the
very bottom of the jar, SO that the eggs. of
which it is about half full. are kept continually
stirred up. When a batch has been treated in
this way for four or FIVE DAYS the little fish are
mat ahnnt raaHu 70 huroh ont
of them in their transparent egg
shells. half the bigness of a pea, is two black
specks for each shad that is to be, and these
black specks are eyes. As the eggs. several
hundred thousand of them together. are shifted
about In the jar by the action Of the stream of
water, so that those at the bottom are all the
time rising to the top, the fish that are ready
for Matching detacb themselves from their
shells. and being lght-each one hardly more
to the naked eye than a little bit Of
a thread with two specks at one end-as-
cend through the water that is above the eggs
and are drawn out of the jar by a glass siphon
that carries of the water as fast as it enters
through the supply tube. The siphon conveys
the fish into a huge aquarium. whence they
are drawn off as needed into the tin receptacles
which convey them all over the country. The
eggs Matched out in this way are obtained
from the supply station at Fort Washington.
-Four million newly Matched shad fry
have been put into the ponds at the
and on the LIST Of August these 1000, 900
young shad will be let out into the Potomac
to take care of themselves. At the ponds they
are now engaged in propagating carp for dis
trlbutlon. They have already hatched out
1,5O0. 900 of them this season. 1t only takes
three or four female carp to produce that
many young ones, but only about 40 per cent
of them live, and that must be made up for.
OF shad eggs more than so per cent are usually
hatched.