246 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



iu 1886 at 1,300,949, and iu 1887 at 1,568,631. lu 1895 tlie yield was 

 1,155,610, but ill 1896 only 588,898 shad were taken in this river, the 

 local value of which was $83,237. Of this yield, 297,178 were caught in 

 drift nets, 180,775 in stake nets, 68,315 in- seines, 41,800 in pole nets, and 

 800 in fykes. The catch by the New Jersey fishermen numbered 168,800, 

 while 420,098 were taken therein by residents of New York State. 



The following table shows by States the number of persons employed 

 in each branch of the shad fisheries of the Hudson liiver in 1896 : 



The following table shows by States the apparatus employed in each 

 branch of the shad fisheries of the Hudson Eiver in 1896: 



The following table shows by States the number of shad caught in 

 each form of apparatus in the Hudson River in 1896 : 



Drift nets are used on the Hudson from the New Jersey line to within 

 a short distance of the Troy dam. In the lower half of the river, 

 below Saugerties in Ulster County, the nets range from 450 to 1,000 

 yards in length, with an average of about 500 yards, but the length, 

 as well as the depth, depends on tke size of the channel in which they 

 are operated, the nets being as large as the width of the channel 

 admits. The largest nets are used at Hyde Park, Highland, West 

 Point, and Verplanck Point, the last named being the center of the 



