THE PROPAGATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE SHAD. 337 



The earliest spawners may be taken during the latter half of 'April. At 

 this time, ripe males are abundant and become rather scarce late in the 

 season. The large seines "cut out" at the fisheries about the 14th of 

 June, and the fishing is continued by the small seines, pound-nets, and 

 drift-nets until late in the summer. 



4. — THE DISTRIBUTION OF SHAD FROM THE HUDSON RIVER. 



The different camps were broken up entirely about June 7, and by the 

 10th the men were all off to the Hudson. From this point, the first ship- 

 ment was made on the 11th of June, Messrs. Frank 1ST. Clark and H. E. 

 Quinn starting on the 11th for the White River of Indiana with 100,000 

 shad. 



Shipments were made from here to the Wliite, the Muskingum, the 



Scioto, the Des Moines, and to the Colorado of Texas ; in all about 



four hundred and twenty-five thousand shad were distributed from this 



point.* r 



5. — THE CONNECTICUT RIVER STATION. 



On the 1st of July, the parties moved to Holyoke, and shipments were 

 begun to the South and West. The fishery below Holyoke was visited, 

 and a couple of seine-hauls made for the purpose of judging of its 

 advantages as a hatching-station. A small catch was obtained, and the 

 fact of the availability of another hatching-location pretty well estab- 

 lished, if it ever should be found necessary to use a second one. 



Commissioner Brackett, of Massachusetts, and Commissioner Mud- 

 son, of Connecticut, canle to Holyoke, and with them the general plan 

 of the work was discussed. 



It was decided that one-half of all fishes hatched should be returned 

 to the Connecticut ; and the proposal on the part of the United States 

 was made to place one-fourth of the fish above the dam, in order that a 

 colony might become established there which would be likely to have 

 the desire for returning to this portion of the river when they had 

 become mature fishes. A few shad of 8 to 12 inches in length, taken in 

 the. fishway, were thought to be from the stock placed above the darn at 

 Bellows Falls, Vt., during the two previous years. 



There were distributed in waters of New England, other than the 

 Connecticut, 320,000 shad ; distributed in waters of the United States in 

 the Mississippi Valley and tributary to the Gulf of Mexico, 590,000; 

 carried to the Upper Connecticut, 1,205,000; hatched and put in below 

 the dam, 4,500,000; sent to Germany, 400,000— about 7,000,000 in all. 



Two hundred thousand were sent from the Delaware, one-half to the 

 Stanton River, headwaters of the Roanoke, and one-half to the Pearl 

 River of Mississippi and Louisiana. The total of fish hatched and 

 turned into the waters of the rivers which afforded the ripe fish and eggs 

 and those sent away to distant waters was 12,500,000. 



*See Tables. 

 22 F 



