BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES ITSH COMMISSION. 141 



Mr. Barnes says they catch very few ripe fish of either sex, but take 

 a good many "down-rimners," or spent fish. He believes all the fish 

 go lonj>- distances above the highest fisheries, which are only a short 

 distance from salt water, to spawn. 



On the headwaters of these rivers, owing to the natural difficulties 

 and the absence of market facilities, the only shad caught are taken 

 with bow-nets and short pieces of gill-nets, as on the Saint Mary's, and 

 only used for home consumption. 



A great many shad are taken in Winy ah Bay before they leave salt 

 water. The best of the season here is February and Marclr. On the 

 day of uiy visit to Mr. Barnes's flat, the 7th instant, his total catch was 

 .'» shad, and he quit fishing that day. He was paying 30 cents each, 

 at first hand, for the fish he bought, and I see b^' the quotations in the 

 Star of the 8th instant that they are being sold in Washington at $25 

 to $32 per hundred. 



It is possible that some little work might be done here before the open- 

 ing of the season farther north. There would certainly be more chance 

 ot success than in Florida, so far as my experience goes. I do not think 

 much can be done where the catch of shad is taken by gill-nets, espe- 

 cially as fished in Southern rivers. As a rule, comparatively few shad 

 are taken at a drift, and of these the proportion of males and females is 

 rarely equally divided. Still more rarely are the two sexes in the pro- 

 per condition for spawning. Especially is this true when by force of 

 <ircumstances these nets are only fished in the long, deep reaches of the 

 river, and never allowed to fish near the bottom. Consequently it seems 

 to me most of the fish taken are those running up or down from the 

 spawning-beds near the headwaters, where they cannot be caught, ex- 

 cept iu limited numbers, by the bow-net, &c. 



W^e left Georgetown on the evening of the 7th instant, arrived off 

 the Chesapeake early on the morning of the 9th, touched at Norfolk 

 fur a couple of hours, and then proceeded to Washington, D. C, arriving 

 on the evening of this date at 6.20. 



Washington, D. C, April 10, 1884. 



«4?.-PR0P0ME:1> INTRODlTCTffOIV OF HAWAIIAIV ITiriiliET IIMTO THE 



UNITED STATES. 



By Kon. JOHIV F. ITIILLEIR, U. S. S. 



[From a letter to Prof. S. F. Baird.] 



The Hawaiian mullet is a very good food fish, not equal to our black 

 bass, shad, Spanish mackerel, pompano, and any other American fishes 

 of the best sorts, but a fairly good fish, which grows rapidly to perhaps a 

 pound in weight and is comparatively free from objectionable bones. It 

 inhabits the salt water in the harbor of Honolulu, and is propagated 



