208 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



Eecommendations. — My investigations proved that the best place 

 for capturing- shad was the Saint Mary's Kiver between King's Ferry 

 and Brick Yard, and if a vessel properly equipped for the purpose could 

 remove the logs from the river at the places indicated, I think a suc- 

 cessful season would be assured. 



A hatching station might be located at King's Ferry, where there is a 

 large saw-mill, store for supplies, etc., and plenty of wharf room on 

 which to locate a steam-pump and hatching cones. Fuel is abundant 

 and very cheap, and there is a branch railroad to Hillyard Station. 



The hatching station should be supplied with a small boiler and steaui- 

 pump, and fifteen cones should be put up. To run this station success- 

 fully, I should recommend that ten men be assigned to duty at it. 

 Lumber is very cheap at the mill, should any be needed. 



The station should be established about the first of February in order 

 to give plenty of time before the fish begin to run, to clear properly the 

 hauls and reaches on the river of logs, so there should be no impedi- 

 ment to the drifting of the gill-nets. 



1 should also recommend that two sturgeon nets be supplied — one 

 above and one below the gill-nets and seines in order to protect them 

 from destruction by the sturgeons, which are very plentiful. These 

 nets should be 12-inch mesh, of 42-thread, 40 fathoms long, to fish 

 about 18 feet of water. 



Washington, D. C, April 7, 1884. 



IIO.-NOTS; ON THE BREEDIIVO OF fEIiS. 



By EDTl^ARD H. THOMPSOIV. 



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



T mailed you yesterday a box containing specimens of the AnguilUdce 

 (young). Yesterday morning, while working up material on the '' Gel- 

 asmi of Buzzard's Bay," I noticed the following facts : 



West Falmouth Harbor is an inlet from Buzzard's Bay and terminates 

 in a sandy marsh densely carpeted with marsh-grass. Through this 

 marsh a narrow ditch has been cut to drain a contiguous cranberry bog. 

 The ditch has of late years been completely stopped by a thick jjlank 

 l^laced athwart it, thus forming a complete cul-de-sac. The plank is 

 above common tide-water, but is generally dripping with water that 

 trickles through from the bog above. The part of the ditch of which I 

 speak is hardly, if ever, free from the water, which comes principally 

 from the cranberry bogs. A thick black mud lies on the bottom. As 

 I passed the plank I noticed upon it a singular appearance. Approach- 

 ing closer, I found it to consist of a large number of tiny eels massed 

 together in a solid bundle. The mass, 1 should say, could have been 

 contained in a pint measure. 



FoKEST Hill, W. Falmouth, Mass., May 17, 1884. 



