BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 455 



lu the fisb-market at ProvincetowQ I noticed a small-nioutli flat-fish 

 that looked like our common small-mouth flat-fish, but the back was 

 dark brown, with orange-yellow spots all over, and it looked longer 

 than the common flat-fish in proportion to its width, with a sharper 

 nose.* 



About Truro they did not catch any menhaden, though usually their 

 weirs were full in the fall. About November 15 the Northwestern Weir 

 Company caught 30 large horse-mackerel. The traps were taken up 

 about December 15, but very little had been taken for the past fortnight. 



Shad caught in November. — Mr. E. J. Cory, writing from Tiver- 

 ton Four Corners, II. I., December 31, 1885, said: "In 1885 I caught a 

 dozen or more of the common river shad ; in 1884 I took three or four of 

 them ; and in 1883 I caught oue, which I then noticed as something un- 

 usual. All were taken about November 15, in my traps located on the 

 west side of Sakonnet River, about li miles from the mouth, near what 

 is called Stony Brook. They were set in about 4 fathoms of water at 

 ordinar}' tides, and about 250 yards from the shore. None of the other 

 fishermen in this neighborhood, so far as I know, have caught any shad 

 at this time of year." In 1S8G Mr. Corj' removed his traps about No- 

 vember 15, prior to which date he had caught no shad. 



Mr. Vinal N. Edwards wrote from Wood's Holl, Mass., January 4, 1886: 

 "I myself saw Lewis Edwards catch three such shad in a fish-trap at 

 Hadley Harbor about November 1, 1885. They were very large." 



Do SHAD SPAWN IN SALT OB BRACKISH WATER "?— Experiments have 

 been made, with apparently satisfactory results, which show that it is 

 impossible to hatch and bring to maturity the eggs of shad in salt or 

 brackish water. Nevertheless the impression has prevailed and still 

 continues to prevail amoug the fishermen that shad will actually propa- 

 gate in other than fresh water. 



Mr. Frederick Kirtland, writing on this subject from Saybrook, Conn., 

 November 23, 188G, says : 



"Having been engaged in shad-fishing for many years at the mouth 

 of the Connecticut River and along the adjacent shores of Long Island 

 Sound, I have become satisfied, and others agree with me in this, that 

 nearly, if not quite all, the shad we now catch along the shore of the 

 sound are hatched and grown outside of the rivers, either in the sound 

 at or near the mouths of the freshwater streams, or perhaps some of 

 them may enter these streams'. Oue of my reasons ibr so believing is 

 that the fishermen in West Brook, Clinton, and Madison, west of the 

 mouth of the Connecticut River, during the spawning season in June, 

 sometimes take 50 or 100 racer or spawned shad in a day, while the 

 fishermen in and near the mouth of the river take almost none. It 

 seems scarcely possible that these soawncd fish should have come all 

 the way down the river, escaping the nets and pounds, and then have 



* Dr. T. H. Bean pronounced this llat-lisli 1o l)e Limaitda fcrniginea. 



