3D4 EEPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



FoBT Snelling-, Minn., December 26, 1872. 



Your two letters of recent date came to hand in due season. 



In your first letter you wish me to state as near as possible the date at 

 which the fish in question were observed by me. It was during 1856 or 

 '57, in May, I think about the middle of the month, as it was after the 

 corn-planting of the farmers, and during the spring of the year in which 

 our State legislature passed an enactment to prevent the taking of fishes 

 with the seine, which of course thereafter prevented the presence of the 

 fish from ever becoming generally known throughout the community. 

 Since 1861, 1 have only been a visitor at Mount Carmel twice. Because 

 of the prohibition of seining it is more than probable that the fact that 

 the true shad ever has been, or is now, a visitor of Wabash River, is only 

 known to a very limited number. The four I saw taken in the Keosho 

 Eiver were caught about the middle of May ; one bit at a hook, another 

 was accidentally hooked in the abdomen by my wife, and two others 

 were secured by some seiners; and all were seen by me in 1871. 



Then, again, if some fortunate individual should in some future time' 

 take some of the trout from Neosho Eiver, it would not surprise me, for 

 during the winter and spring of 1871 I procured from Livingston Stone 

 some 1,200 trout-spawn, and hatched quite a number of them, and 

 turned them into a spring branch, (emptying into Neosho River,) about 

 one hundred yards from its mouth. 

 I am respectfully, yours, 



WILL E. TURNER, M. D., 

 Acting Assistant (burgeon, U. S. A., Fort Snelling, Minn. 

 Spencer F. Baird, 



Washington, D. G. 



P. S. — By referring to Illinois State laws against seining fishes in the 

 State, the exact date can be determined. 



United States Engineer's Office, 



Mobile, Ala., February 26, 1873. 



Dear Sir : Your letter dated January 29 was received this morning, 

 having been delayed many days in Georgia. 



On our survey of Flint River, I made many inquiries in regard to the 

 existence of the shad, but failed to establish any satisfactory evidence 

 of their ever having appeared in its waters. Many of those from whom 

 I sought information were fishermen who had been raised upon the coast 

 of the Carolinas, and were perfectly familiar with the fish and the time 

 of their appearance. They all said that none had ever been seen or 

 caught by them. 



The river has no obstructions, even at extreme low water, preventing 

 their movements up or down. The river is a series of pools of compar- 

 atively deep water, discharging over gentle rapids formed by strata of 



