Ixxxii REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



lip the stream as practicable, since it is an established fact that adult fish 

 will always return to the place where they first made acquaintance with 

 the water, passing directly by the mouths of streams or tributaries bet- 

 ter adapted to their purposes, to gain their orignal home. For this 

 reason, it is well to carry the young fish to the highest point in a stream 

 that can be reached, even though numerous fish-ways may be required 

 to permit the return of the adult fish. It may safely be assumed that fish 

 born below an impassable dam will not ascend far above it, even with 

 a suitable fish- way; although it is quite possible that when they feel 

 themselves in a powerful current of the fish-way, they may enter it and 

 reach the uppper part of the dam. Here, the water being quiet, they 

 will probably remain without proceeding to any considerable distance. 

 Mr. Seth Green informs me that the fish hatched at Castleton, below 

 Albany, when ascending the river as adult fish, very rarely go beyond 

 their original starting-point, so that, while there is a great supply at that 

 locality, there has been little or no increase in the numbers higher up 

 the river. 



In addition to the construction of fish-ways, steps must be taken to 

 prevent the capture of the breeding-fish in improper numbers. This 

 can only be done satisfactorily by providing for a close time during the 

 fishing-season of two or three days in each week, during which no fish 

 are to be taken, and by stopping the fishery entirely after a certain date. 

 This period will vary with the season ; the time of cessation, as far as 

 shad are concerned, coming earlier in the South than in the Forth — 

 perhaps about the middle of May for the Potomac Kiver, the first of 

 June for the Delaware and Susquehanna, the middle of June for the 

 Hudson, and the twenty-fifth of June for the Connecticut. A proper 

 close time for the eastern salmon would fail some time in August or the 

 beginning of September. 



The use of nets and other engines for the capture of adult fish can 

 only be considered improper when carried to an excess, and covering 

 too great a period of time. Anything, however, that affects the young 

 and destroys them before attaining their full growth should be pro- 

 hibited. Among the most injurious agencies in this direction are the 

 fish-dams, so abundant in certain streams in the autum n, consisting of 

 two walls of stone in the shape of the letter V, the angle pointing down 

 the current, and opening into what is called a fish-ba sket. The object of 

 this is to guide the descending fish, in the entire breadth of the river, 

 into this basket, into which they fall, and from which they are some- 

 times removed by the wagon-load. The special object of this kind of 

 fishery is the capture of eels, which, as is well known, run down, when 

 mature, in the autumn to the sea for the purpose of spawning ; but the 

 baskets take millions of other fish, and are especially injurious to the 

 young shad, Pennsylvania and Delaware have, we believe, prohibited 

 the use of these dams in shad-streams, and with very great propriety. 



Other points to be regulated, and requiring more or less of legislative 



