BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 179 



catch being only 800, against 1,500 in 1883, a difference of nearly half. 

 Talcing a few years back, the fishing lias been as good with him as it 

 was ten years ago, except this year, which has been bad. He attributes 

 the falling off to bad weather and the pound-nets set below, which are 

 referred to as being destroyed by Mr. Kennedy. He can get spawners 

 from June 10 to July. This year he stopped fishing on June with 

 seines, but can get fish now (June 13) and with drift-nets for many days 

 longer. 



Last year there was a good run of sturgeon, but he did not fish, be- 

 cause he had no nets to take them. (The gill-net for shad has a 5-iuch 

 mesh, while the sturgeon net has a mesh four times as large, or about a 

 10 inch mesh.) Mr. Mann will try for them this year (1884). The catch 

 of striped bass has been good, and he has thrown away over 1,000 of 

 them which weighed less than one pound; that is, returned them to the 

 water alive. 



Coxsackie. — Ed. Alberton thinks that the season of 1884 has been 

 the poorest in many years. He attributes it to the pounds about and 

 below Ehinebeck, which this report shows were removed in the second 

 week of June, and to the backward season. John Maloue says that the 

 inferior catch is due to the pound-nets, and does not think the weather 

 had much to do with it. It is certain, however, that the catch of 1884 

 is far below that of any year within the last decade. He does not know 

 that many spawners can be taken here, because their capture is uncer- 

 tain. Some years the fishermen get a great number of ripe fish, and 

 again they are scarce. This year they are rare. If fishing was allowed 

 after June 15, more ripe fish would be taken. 



Conclusion. — From the foregoing interviews, and also from conver 

 sations with men in the employ of those named, 1 learn several things. 

 One is that there is an antagonistic feeling toward the Xew York Fish 

 Commission because of certain alleged crossings of the shad with the 

 alewife (herring), which they claim has decreased the size of the shad. 

 This is a matter upon which I do not care to write at length, and will 

 simply suggest to those seeking further information to get the views 

 of the fishermen themselves. My well-known objections to the hybrid- 

 ization of fishes may render me incompetent to express an opinion 

 concerning the value of a hybrid whose mother was a shad and whose 

 father was an alewife. 



It is certain that the catch of shad in the Upper Hudson for 1884 is 

 lighter than for many previous years. I do not know what it was on 

 the lower river, but as this fish is influenced in its movements by tem- 

 perature, we may consider that the cold water may have been in con- 

 junction with the causes attributed by the fishermen. It is certain 

 that the shad, which in its migrations is ever on a search for a temper- 

 ature of 00° Fahrenheit, according to Colonel McDonald, will not as- 

 cend our rivers until the melting snows above have spent their vigor, 

 and the temperature at the mouth of the river has gone above 50° and 



