424 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Greenbrier Eiver selected for placing the fisli, was reached. There had 

 been fresh water afibrded the cans five times, and the aerating appa- 

 ratus applied seventeen times. 



The temperature of the Greenbrier Eiver was found to be 76°; the 

 water in the cans from 72° to 74°, a difference too slight to injure the 

 young shad. Procuring a boat, some time was expended in finding a spot 

 free from minnows and small fishes ; but they were finally turned into a 

 quiet inlet to one side from the rapid current of the river. 



The two cans of galvanized iron did not contain a single live fish, but 

 the loss in the tin cans was very small. The process to which the sheet- 

 iron is subjected while the zinc coating is applied had possibly left suffi- 

 cient injurious matter on the metal, which had not been well cleaned and 

 produced the fatal effect upon the fish ; and, though large fish may not 

 be materially affected by the use of this metal, it is not advisable to use 

 it in the transportation of so delicate a creature as the young shad is. 



Out of the *50,000 estimated to be the number that left Washington, 

 about 30,000 were put into the river alive. 



On the 9th 40,000 shad were put into the tin cans and sent to the 

 Iisew River, Virginia, headwaters of the Kanawha Eiver, in the charge 

 of Mr. Welsher. • 



The temperature of the water was reduced to about 70° before the 

 cans w ere put into the wagon. Leaving the city at 7 p. m. they reached 

 Central Station Virginia, at 10.30 a. m. of the 10th and were moved to 

 the river in an ox-cart and turned out of the cans in good condition with 

 an imperceptible loss. 



The work of the season had resulted in the releasing of 1,370,000 young 

 shad in the Potomac Eiver, and about 90,000 contributed to the head- 

 waters of the Kanawha Eiver as a portion of the stocking of the waters 

 of the Mississippi Eiver tributaries, which was a part of Professor Baird's 

 plan for the season's work. 



The conservatism which Seth Green had taught his men, in estiuiating 

 numbers of eggs, is to be taken into account, when comparing the suc- 

 cess of the season with that of other localities ; as the uncertain and un- 

 reliable method in estimating in different parts of the country have re- 

 sulted in very diflerent standards, by which the approximations to the 

 true number have been attained. 



In the future it will be advisable to begin operations earlier, as it is 

 not probable, in ordinary seasons, that the temperature of the water will 

 continue cold so late in the spring, and the last of April, or possibly the 

 middle of the month, might find occasionally a fish spawning; and the 

 true policy in effecting large results is not to allow a single spawning of 

 eggs to escape the vigilance of the operators. 



"The staudanl for estimation of numbers of the live fisli adopted by Mr.Greeu's men, 

 with commendable desire not to exaggerate, I suspected from the first to be too small, 

 as it would not account for the estimated number of eggs in the boxes. A test was 

 subsequently made as related on page 443, and any excess of numbers in this report 

 over former published statements in the newspapers is to be attributed to this fact. 



