152 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. 



year by year increased in size, until, to use the words of a 

 native of South Carolina, who lived many years near Sis- 

 tera Ferry, on the Savannah river, they are now equal to 

 the best Savannah river shad.' 



" The white shad have chiefly been taken in the fish- 

 traps at the foot of the fall at Wetumpka and near Tusca- 

 loosa. One, I am informed, has been taken from a trap at 

 the head of the Coosa river, near Rome, in this state, and 

 only some sixty rnile-s below the locality in which the eggs 

 were deposited by Major Cooper, in a tributary of the 

 Etowah river. I also learn that some few have been taken 

 with a dip-net near Selma. 



" I think that we may safely conclude that the white 

 shad may be as successfully established in the Mississippi 

 river as it has been in the Alabama. Since feeding-grounds 

 for that delicious fish exist at the mouth of one river flow- 

 ing into the Grulf of Mexico, may they not exist at the 

 mouths of other or all the rivers discharging into that 

 sea ? Time must answer that question. 



''Savannah, April 19th, 1866." 



It is to be regretted that some memoranda concerning 

 the incubation were not given in this communication. It 

 would have been a matter of much interest to compare 

 observations of this kind with those of Mr. Lyman, of the 

 Massachusetts Fish Commission, who says, <l Green was not 

 able to hatch more than 2 per cent, of the ova deposited 

 on the natural river-bed." 



The following account of the hatching of shad-spawn at 

 Holyoke is from the admirable report of the commission 



