428 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



IIVQIIRIES COTfCERKIXO THE PROPAGATION OF Al^BERICAN SMEI.T 

 AND .SHAD, AND NOTES ON THE FISHERIES OF THE WASH IN ENO- 

 l.ANI>. 



By CHARLES W. HARDIIVC^, Inspector of Fislieries in the 



IVasli. 



[Letter to Prof. S. F. Baird.] 



I am requested by the corporation of King's Lynn to report upon wliat 

 I consider the best method of restocking the river Ouse with smelts and 

 other anadromous fish, and shall feel greatly obliged if you will give me 

 the following information : 



I see by the printed reports of the United States Commission of Fish 

 and Fisheries (which you were kind enough to send me in 1880), that 

 the smelt is there called Osmerus mordax and Osmerus viridescens. The 

 English or sparling being called Osmerus eperlanus — the word " sparling" 

 is a local name for the smelt. Is the American smelt the same as the 

 English smelt"? 



I see by the report of the Commissioner of Fisheries of Maryland, 

 January, 1877, that the attempts at artificial propagation of smelts were 

 unsuccessful. I have not been able to obtain any subsequent reports to 

 see if it has since been so. 



Smelts spawn in this river (Ouse) from April to the beginning of June, 

 and I am anxious to know if it is possible to obtain the ova either from 

 the fish direct, or from the spawning-ground, and hatch it out in gauze 

 trays or troughs, and whether fresh water will do, or is it necessary to 

 have the water partly salt. 



I also observe in your reports that the shad is largely hatched artifi- 

 cially for the Amea-ican rivers, the method of hatching being explained 

 in detail. Smelts are indigenous to this river, and I am of opinion that 

 the artificial propagation of them in large quantities would be beneficial 

 to the fisheries. May I ask if the shad (which I was informed by Mr. 

 Fred. Mather, at Berlin last year, was different from the English shad) 

 would be the most desirable fish to cultivate in these waters, or would 

 you recommend another anadromous fish ! 



The river Ouse is about 500 feet wide at its entrance into the "Wash, 

 running between the counties of Norfolk and Lincolnshire. The main 

 stream is about 156 miles in length, draining an area of about 2,890 

 square miles, with a tidal flow of about 40 miles from its outfall. The 

 Wash, into which the Ouse empties itself, is, as you doubtless know, an 

 arm of the IsTorth Sea, or German Ocean, on the east coast of England, 

 about IG miles long by 10 miles (an average width). The saltness of the 

 Wash water, or rather the specific gravity, is 102GJ at high water. The 

 average (specihc gravity) at the mouth of the Ouse, at high water, is 

 about 1010 hydrometer; distilled water being 1000. 



