CULTURE OF THE SHAD. 145 



favor of its artificial propagation. By such means they can 

 be immediately introduced into upper waters and tribu- 

 taries of our rivers, if fishways are provided for their 

 passage up and down. In eddies where sun-fish, perch, 

 chub, roach, and other small fish congregate (being led 

 thither, no doubt, by an instinctive knowledge of the food 

 they are to find), the suspended and moving ova of shad 

 must offer easily attained morsels, and it is not likely that 

 any large proportion escape the ravenous devourers, or that 

 one out of five of the helpless fry live to migrate to sea. 

 All Philadelphia fishermen know how tempting a bait shad 

 roe is to any fish, from the splendid rockfish down to the 

 grovelling catfish. That it would pay to keep the fry for 

 a short time in ponds of river water, is problematical, but 

 well worth the experiment. 



The Massachusetts Commissioners of Fisheries, in their 

 last report, comparing the statistics of Mr. T. D. Stoddart, 

 as given in the " Harvest of the Seas," with other autho- 

 rities, estimate that of the eggs of salmon which are not 

 devoured, one-third become parrs, that two-thirds of the 

 parrs become smolts, that one-twentieth of the smolts be- 

 come grilse, and that one-tenth of the grilse become salmon. 

 Thus showing that only one out of fifteen hundred eggs 

 produces a full-grown salmon if deposited naturally, and 

 the ova, fry, and grilse subjected to the usual chances. 

 Or, that the produce of twenty thousand ova at the end of 

 the third year is only seventy grilse, seven full-grown 

 salmon, fifty thousand new parrs, and two hundred thou- 

 sand eggs. The twenty thousand eggs thus producing 

 13 K 



