THE SHAD'S ANNUAL PILGRIMAGE. 821 



will, their ultimate establishment in the river system of Asia may- 

 be regarded as assured. Owing to various favorable conditions, 

 the shad not only multiplies rapidly in its new abode, but in some 

 localities has modified its habits, being found in varying abun- 

 dance throughout the year. Moreover, it attains an exceptional 

 size ; seven and eight pound fish are common in California, but 

 are almost unknown with us, and there have been exposed for 

 sale in the San Francisco market shad of a weight as high as 

 twelve and thirteen pounds. This superiority in size is not un- 

 likely due mainly to a less actively prosecuted fishery, for shad of 

 equal weight were known to our fathers. The heaviest fish are 

 probably the growth of a number of years, and an exhaustive 

 fishery that each season leaves but few survivors necessarily tends 

 to eliminate the larger individuals. 



Upon the Atlantic coast the utmost effort of the Fish Commis- 

 sioners, supported by ample State and national expenditure, seems 

 powerless to effect a renewal of the abundance of old. No more 

 saddening exhibitions of man's improvidence are afforded than 

 by the noble rivers that have been depleted or exhausted of their 

 finny treasures, and of such perhaps the most striking are those 

 presented by the larger affluents of Chesapeake Bay, the Potomac 

 and the Susquehanna. Sixty years ago, through the greater course 

 of these long streams, both the shad and the alewife, or fresh-wa- 

 ter herring, existed in almost incredible numbers. In the Poto- 

 mac the two species would often ascend the river together, and it 

 was not an uncommon draught to secure several hundred thou- 

 sand herring and several thousand shad at a single haul. The 

 fishermen, in drawing the seine on shore, would pile the herring 

 knee-deep for twelve or fifteen feet landward, and then walk or 

 wade through the mass, thrusting in their arms and picking out 

 the shad. The herring so stacked would be sometimes sold for a 

 mere trifle, sometimes be given away ; often, although an edible 

 fish, and perhaps superior in that respect to the common herring, 

 would be carted off for manure ; and sometimes, for lack of even 

 that demand, would be allowed to float away upon the rising tide. 

 In 1832 nine hundred and fifty thousand, accurately counted, were 

 taken out at one draught ; the number of shad seined was often 

 four thousand and upward, and the selling price as low as a dol- 

 lar and a half per hundred fish. Of such destructive fishing a 

 constant decline in the annual catch was the inevitable result, 

 and thus it happened that for some years prior to the war prac- 

 tical exhaustion had been attained. The abatement of the fishery 

 during that period so far restocked the river that it was renewed 

 with profit upon the restoration of peace, but improvidence again 

 resulted in impoverishment. In the early seventies government 

 aid was invoked and extended ; many millions of shad fry were 



