388 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



waters of the Alabama, as Colouel Groom states from personal observa- 

 tion, at the falls of Black Warrior, near Tuscaloosa, several gentlemen 

 went from Alabama to tide water, in this State, and collecting a number 

 of the fry of the white shad, transported them by railroad in a hogs- 

 head of water, kept cool with ice, to Montgomery, and committed them 

 to the waters of the Alabama River. This, I believe, was done because 

 having found that the water of the Gulf was suitable, a rapid increase 

 of that fish was expected to be made. 

 Very truly, yours, 



W. C. DANIELL. 



Professor S. F. Baird, 



Washington, I). C. 



Decatur, Ga., January 20, 1860. 



Dear Sir : I thank you for your prompt response to my inquiry as 

 to the time in which the shad attains its maturity. I take pleasure in sup- 

 plying you with the information which you suggest relative to the intro- 

 duction of the white shad into the Alabama River. 



Learning from the fishermen frequenting the Savannah market during 

 the season- for taking shad, that there is a clear distinction between the 

 shad of the Savannah River and those taken in the Ogeechee River, a 

 neighboring stream, I drew the plain inference that the young fry of 

 that fish attained their growth near the mouths of the respective rivers 

 in which they had been spawned, and I supposed that if once placed in 

 the Alabama waters they would thrive there as well as in the Atlantic 

 rivers of Georgia. 



In the early spring of 1848 I was with my family on my Drakies 

 plantation, on the Georgia shore of the Savannah River, some ten miles 

 above the city. My table was freely supplied with the white shad just 

 taken and delivered alive at my kitchen. I had the matured eggs taken 

 from the live parent spread on brown paper and the liquor pressed from 

 the fresh milt of the male fish over the eggs. Thus prepared, they were 

 dried in the shade and carefully laid aside. I sent the i3ackage to my 

 friend Maj. Mark A. Cooper, of Etowah, Cass County, who carefully 

 placed them in a small stream (branch) flowing into the Etowah River, as 

 I had suggested. He paid frequent visits, and watched closely the de- 

 posit until all the eggs disappeared, which they did gradually. The 

 Etowah River, as you know, is one of the upper sources of the Alabama 

 River, taking its rise in CTnion County, and not very distant from the 

 ^^Torth CaroUna line. I am dependent on the recollections of two mem- 

 bers of my family for my date, (1848.) They have very distinct impres- 

 sions, and have mentioned circumstances and little details, some of 

 which I myself know to be true. As the winter of 1847-'48 was the 

 last season that my family spent at Drakies, I cannot cite a more recent 



