lii REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



A similar state of things has existed, or at least until very recently, 

 in the great majority of the rivers on our eastern coast, especially those 

 north of the Potomac; and it is not to be wondered at, in view of the 

 immense interests involved, that any suggestion of measures by which 

 even a partial restoration of the abundance of shad may be accomplished, 

 should be eagerly embraced. 



The first efficient steps in reference to the artificial propagation of 

 the shad appear to have been those of Seth Green, at Hadley Falls, in 

 the Connecticut Eiver, in 1867 5 but at a much earlier date a practical 

 experiment was made looking toward the same general result. In the 

 spring of 1848, Dr. William C. Daniel, of Savannah, now deceased, 

 while at his plantation, ten miles from tbat city, was seized with the 

 idea of attempting to introduce this fish into the Alabama Eiver, and 

 at once had a large number of shad-eggs squeezed out upon brown 

 paper, and the milt of the male discharged over them. The eggs were 

 dried, to what extent is not stated, and then sent by mail to Mr. Mark 

 A. Cooper, at Etowah, in Cass County, who placed them in a small 

 stream flowing into the Etowah Eiver, a tributary of the Alabama, which, 

 as is well known, discharges into the Gulf of Mexico. These eggs were 

 carefull}^ watched by Mr. Cooper, and after a time finally disappeared? 

 allowing the inference that the young had passed away in the waters. 



Up to that time, according to Dr. Daniel's testimony and that of 

 others, shad were entirely unknown in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico; 

 bat in 1851 or 1852 some were taken in traps placed at the mouth of the 

 Black Warrior Eiver, near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and also at the falls of 

 the Alabama, near Wetumpka. In 1858, ten years after the transfer of 

 tfie eggs, they were taken abundantly near Tuscaloosa, and since then 

 have been regularly captured every year in greater or less numbers. 



The ready inference from these statements is, of course, that the 

 •Alabama Eiver shad referred to were the progeny of the spawn sent 

 iuto its waters by Dr. Daniel. There is, however, considerable doubt 

 whether shad-eggs, dried even to a slight degree and forwarded by mail, 

 would retain suificient vitality to mature. This, if true, might indeed 

 furnish a practical suggestion for the more convenient introduction 

 of the eggs into remote waters. The experiment might easily be made 

 as to the vitality of the eggs under such treatment; and should this be 

 established satisfactorily, we may unhesitatingly look upon Dr. Daniel 

 as the oi-igiuator of the experiments in regard to the transfer of this 

 useful fish to new waters. In the appendix (page 387) will be found a 

 series of letters from Dr. Daniel to myself, as long ago as 1860, having 

 reference to this subject. 



An additional fiict in reference to the introduction of shad into tribu- 

 taries of the Gulf of Mexico is furnished by Mr. William Gesner, of 

 Birmingham, Ala., in a letter to the Atlanta Herald, in which he 

 states that in the spring of 1858, in connection with Dr. E. E. Mordecai, 

 of Mobile, and Mr. T. Hooker, of Montgomery, he placed 1,300 fish of 



