152 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



5 cents a pound in San Francisco. The shells are utilized as manure, 

 to some extent, about San Francisco ; but, like the meats, are mostly sent 

 to China, where they serve as a fertilizer for rice, the tea plant, &c. In 

 San Francisco they sell at about 25 cents per hundred-weight. Both 

 the meats and shells are shipped to China in sacks. The trade is en- 

 tirely in the hands of Chinese merchants, who ship by way of Hong 

 Kong. The meats are eaten by all classes, but are cheaper and less es- 

 teemed than the native shrimps, which are said to be comparatively 

 scarce. 



It is estimated that about 200,000 pounds of shrimps, valued at about 

 $20,000, are annually sold in the San Francisco markets. The total ex- 

 ports of shrimp meats and shells to China and the Sandwich Islands 

 for 1880 were estimated by Mr. Lockington at above $100,000. These 

 are at present the most important food invertebrates of the Pacific coast 

 of North America. 



The greater part of the Chinese who engage in the shrimp fishery de- 

 vote nearly all of their time to this industry. They live mainly in small, 

 scattered colonies in San Francisco and Tomales Bays, and number 

 several hundred in all. The more important colonies are at Bay View 

 and along the shores of San Mateo, Santa Clara, Marin, and Contra Cos- 

 ta Counties. 



There is no law regulating the shrimp fishery in California, and fish- 

 ing is carried on more or less continuously throughout the year. It 

 seems quite probable that the consumption of shrimps in the vicinity 

 of San Francisco exceeds their rate of increase, and that a marked de- 

 crease in the supply will soon result, as has happened in the case of the 

 food fishes in the bay of San Francisco. No such decrease has, how- 

 ever, been yet observed. 



SHAD l."V PVGET SOI >I>. 

 By JAMES O. SWAN. 



Mr. G. M. Haller, of Seattle, Wash., announces the taking by fisher- 

 men in a net of a shad, August 26, 1882, in Puget Sound. The Seattle 

 papers also mention it and say that it was preserved by Mr. Levy for 

 the Young Naturalists Society of Seattle. This specimen must have 

 come from the Columbia Biver or have found its way north from San 

 Francisco Bay. I think it was quite small — say 8 or 10 inches long — 

 but I have not seen the dimensions accurately given. 



Port Townsend, Wash., August 29, 1882. 



