THE OYSTER. 



215 



logic, but the salt-water fishermen took a different view 

 of the matter. They wanted more legislation them- 

 selves, but of a different sort, and claimed that what 

 was needed was protection for the shad upon the 

 spawning ground. They said that they themselves fur- 

 nished most of the shad for the market ; that without 

 them the cities could not be supplied, and that enough 

 shad escaped their nets and reached the fresh water 

 to supply all the eggs that were needed, if they could 

 be left to lay their eggs in peace. 



In 1880 there seemed to be good sense in this view 

 also, and it was difficult for a disinterested outsider to 

 tell who was right. The only thing which seemed 

 clear was that the shad were growing scarce, and that, 

 if the Legislature did not do something to protect them, 

 they would soon be exterminated. 



In 1888 more shad were caught in salt water than 

 were caught altogether in 1880, and yet the shad fish- 

 eries are now increasing in value from year to year, 

 and this change has been brought about, not by the 

 enactment of new laws to restrict the fishery, but by 

 the production of more fishes. 



In 1880 the U. S. Fish Commission began, syste- 

 matically and upon a large scale, the work of collecting 

 the eggs from the bodies of the shad which were cap- 

 tured for the market in the nets of the fishermen. 

 These eggs were artificially fertilized and the young 

 were kept for a short time in hatching jars, and the 

 waste of eggs was thus prevented. This work has 

 been prosecuted steadily ever since, and the results, up 



