212 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



the previous year, 80 much so that in the time of greatest plenty they 

 coukl hardly be disposed of at three dollars and a half per hundred. 



At the present period the increase has been sncAi that numerous fish- 

 ing stations for a long time abandoned have resumed operations with 

 very satisfactory results. A great increase in the numbers of the shad, 

 has also manifested itself in the Hudson and Merrimac Rivers, and with 

 a reasonable continuance of eflbrt there is every reason to exjiect that 

 the pristine abundance of the fish will be restored, and. possibly in- 

 creased, if young shad are hatched out in sufficient numbers. 



, 1872. — The Germantown Telegraph says : 



" In the year 1SG7 there were two million young shad hatched in 

 the Connectcut Eiver, and in 18(39 four millions. The official report of 

 the Connecticut and Massachusetts commission for 1871 stated, that there 

 were GO per cent, more shad in the river that year than in 1802 and 1870, 

 and 200 per cent, more than in 1862 alone. There had been a gradual 

 decrease until 1870." 



1873. 



May 9, 1873. — A letter received by Seth Green from Frank B. Leach, 

 editor of Vallejo Chronicle, California, says : 



" The first shad ever caught in California waters was taken Monday, 

 by Baltimore Harry, and is now on exhibition at stall 79 and 80, Cali- 

 fornia Market, San Francisco. The Piscicultural Society had offered 

 a standing reward of $50 for the first of these fish caught in the waters 

 of this coast. There is no doubt about this fish being a shad. It was 

 caught in the net of Alex Boyd & Co., at the junction of the Casquinez 

 and Yallejo Straits, opposite the navy-yard magazine. The stranger 

 was about 10 or 17 inches in length. 



"On April 30 announcement was made that a shad measuring 13 inches 

 in length was caught in the nets of the same firm, and brought to the 

 Chronicle Office. The Chronicle states that A. Boyd and Company 

 have been catching the same kind of fish for some weeks past. Being 

 unacquainted with the, species of fish, they attached no importance to 

 it, and have been eating them as fast as caught. Mr. Boyd says he 

 noticed they were very good eating. They have caught some thirteen 

 of them." — (From Rochester Union and Daily Advertiser.) 



May 20, 1873. — Mr. Livingston Stone writes that a true shad was 

 caught at San Francisco, in the mouth of the Sacramento River, on the 

 28th of April preceding. 



May 24, 1873. — An item in the Rochester Union and Advertiser of this 

 date states that " a Mr. Parkhurst, of Stapleton, N. Y., near the mouth 

 of the Genesee River, caught a shad in his seine. The same item says, 

 that last year persons caught a number of young shad in scoop-nets, 

 and the event was duly noticed." 



Septemher 10, 1873.— The Rochester Union and Daily Advertiser of 

 this date announces that a shad 15J inches long, well developed, was 



