XV.-LETTERS REFERRING TO EXPERIMENTS OF W. C. DANIELL, 

 M. D., IN INTRODUCING SHAD LNTO THE ALABAMA RIVER. 



Decatur, Ga., January 9, 1860. 



Dear Sir : Having some twelve years ago had, through the agency of 

 my friend Major Cooper, the fecundated eggs of the white shad depos- 

 ited in the Etowah River, one of the sources of the Alabama River, 

 and that fish having been since taken in that river and in the Black 

 Warrior for the first time, I desire to learn whether it has been through 

 the agency of Major Cooper and myself. It seems that the white shad 

 made its appearance one or two years after the deposit of the fecundated 

 eggs by Major Cooper, if our memories as to dates be accurate. Please 

 say what is the opinion of naturalists as to the time in which the fecund, 

 ated Qgg reproduces itself. I suppose it is a difficult question. I am 

 sure your courtesy will indulge this liberty. The solution given in 

 Alabama to the appearance of the white shad in the Alabama, before 

 advised of what we had attempted in Georgia for them, was that shad 

 were taken by railroad from Savannah to Montgomery, some four hun- 

 dred miles, and dressed in their hotels, whence the ofifal passed through 

 gutters to the river, carrying the eggs of the fish. When it was eistab- 

 lished that the white shad had been taken in the Alabama and Black 

 Warrior Rivers, a committee of the Agricultural Society of Alabama 

 came to Georgia and took, in a hogshead of water, a numbeV of the 

 you '\g shad and placed them in the Alabama River. 



It is supposed by naturalists that the whale visits the inlets of South 

 Carolina and Georgia annually to calve. That is my belief, based upon 

 a number of facts which have reached me in the last thirty years. 

 Very respectfully and truly, your obedient servant, 



W. C. DANIELL. 



I inclose the letter of Maj. Mark A. Cooper, my assistant in introduc- 

 ing the fecundated eggs of the white shad into the Alabama River, 

 through one of its main sources. Major Cooper corroborates the date, 

 which is important to me, as I had in a letter to Col. Isaac Croom, 

 Greensboro, Ala., said, on the recollection of a member of my family, 

 that it was not later than 1850. That date has been since corrected by the 

 recollections of Mrs. Daniell, and my youngest son, Charles, who were 

 about at the date of my letter to Colonel Croom, and in their belief I 

 firmly concur, from recollections recalled by them. I have corrected the 

 error to Colonel Croom. 



In the spring of 1858, after the presence of the white shad in the 



