XX REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



From Point Pleasant, Pa., shipments were made of about 200,000 shad, 

 on July 8, to the headwaters of the Eoauoke, in Virginia, and to the 

 Pearl Eiver, of Mississippi and Louisiana. 



The entire number of shad hatched out during the season was over 

 12,500,000. The accompanying tables give the facts pertaining to their 

 distribution. Preference was given this year to the Mississippi waters 

 and the rivers of the Atlantic and Gulf slopes. The only shipments to 

 the tributaries of the lakes were to those of Lake Champlain. 



In reviewing the labors of the season, it may be remarked that no suc- 

 cess was had in southern waters, the stock of fishes being greatly re- 

 duced and the hauls small, and consequently ripe male and female fish 

 are rarely obtained at the same time. The Potomac, although the 

 season's catch was very much diminished, afforded a larger quantity of 

 eggs, but it would appear to be at a disadvantage when compared with 

 the Hudson or the Connecticut for obtaining spawn. 



The head of the present migration of the shad in the Connecticut is 

 the Holyoke Dam. For a half mile below the dam, the water is shoal 

 and runs among projecting rocks. Just below the Holyoke Bridge is a 

 deep and wide area of the river, into which the shad congregate to 

 spawn. This is the seiuiug-ground, and offers probably the best facili- 

 ties for obtaining shad -ova of any locality in the United States. 



In the Hudson the upper spawning-grouud is near Coeymaus Landing, 

 where a long projecting point shelters a large bayou or arm of the river. 

 About twenty miles above this is the Troy dam, which, until the fish- 

 way was erected, was an effectual obstruction to the fishes, but for 

 some reason few shad go above Coeymaus. So well recognized is this 

 habit, that the occasional shad found above the Coeyman's spawning- 

 ground are termed gipsies. This station of the New York commission 

 is established at the spawning-grounds, where plenty of ripe fish are to 

 be obtained during the season. 



The Potomac has no extensive seiuing-ground above the end of Long 

 Bridge. Small seines, pound-nets, and skim-nets are used to the very 

 foot of the falls, but no hauls are made sufficiently large to warrant a 

 hatching station with the probability of takiug ripe males and females 

 at.each haul above the Jackson City fishery. In fact, the spawning- 

 ground does not concentrate at any one point, but is found along the 

 river at nearly all the shad seining grounds. This compels a multipli- 

 cation of stations, and the past season eggs were obtained from Free 

 Stone Point, Ferry Landing, and the end of Long Bridge, Virginia, aud 

 from Moxley Point, Maryland, and in fact it would be worth while to 

 test any fishery where there was sufficient shelter for the hatching-boxes 

 from the effect of wind and sea. The Ferry Landing fishery afforded 

 the largest number of eggs in, 1875, although the time occupied was 

 shorter than at some of the other localities. 



Hoping to favorably solve the problem as to the possibility of carrying 

 young shad alive across the Atlantic Ocean, in which a failure was experi- 



