178 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Statement, hy water areas, of the yield of shad in each form of a])paratus employed m the 

 fisheries of Virginia in 1896. 



a Hedges. b Fyke nets. c Fall traps. 



CHESAPEAKE BAY IN YIRGINIA. 



In Chesapeake Bay and tributaries are located the principal shad 

 fisheries of America, the annual yield approximatiug 5,000,000 in num- 

 ber, 40 per cent of the product on the entire Atlantic coast. This large 

 aggregation of shad, as well as many more of which we have no evi- 

 dence, annually passes through the 12-mile entrance between Gapes 

 Charles and Henry, sending a detachment of 500,000 or more up James 

 River, an equal quantity up the York, nearly as many up the Rappa- 

 hannock, 1,250,000 in the meantime being caught on the shores of the 

 bay below Smith Point, thus reducing the number to 2,250,000 by the 

 time the mouth of the Potomac is reached. That river attracts about 

 750,000, leaving 1,500,000 to pass into the middle and upper waters of 

 Chesajieake Bay and tributaries. Each of these water areas or river 



