276 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
weeks ago, when the river was flush, quite a number of fish were seen below the dam 
near this place, and some of them were caught by what we call grab-hooking, which 
is to tie a number of hooks toa line and drag it through the water, but since the 
river has fallen I am informed that most of the fish have disappeared. 
T had a talk to-day with the man in charge of the Government lock, and he prom- 
_ ised to try to catch some of the fish when there is a rise in the river again. In case 
he succeeds I will take pleasure in sending them to you. 
Mr..Dent was not able to secure any specimens, and nothing further 
vas heard regarding the occurrence of shad in the Kanawha that year. 
On May 22, 1897, a letter was received by the Fish Commission from 
Mr. James Sowders, wholesale dealer in fresh fish and oysters, Louis- 
ville, Ky., in which he says: 
I forward you foursmall shad. I get them as large as 4 or5 pounds each. They are 
not hickory shad, but are the same fish taken in the rivers along the Atlantic coast. 
I have been getting these fish for the past twenty years or more, but only a few, as we 
have never fished for them in the right way. I put in the long seines this season and 
took lots of them. I expect to do much better next season, as I expect to make a 
success of gill-netting them. We have never fished gill nets of any kind in these 
waters. I know that there are just millions of these fish in this river, for I see them 
out in the rapids going up the river to spawn. I have fishermen all along the Ohio, 
and have several crews fishing below Memphis on the Mississippi River in the early 
spring, and they get a catch of shad there a month before we do here, and my men 
at Troy (about 130 miles below Louisville) get them before we do here. I am posi- 
tive that they are the same fish caught in the Atlantic coast rivers. These shad 
come from the Gulf of Mexico and spawn in the Monongahela River. 
An examination of the four shad sent to the Commission by Mr. 
Sowders showed that they differed from the common shad, as well as 
from the Alabama shad, in some important particulars, and it was 
determined to take the first opportunity to visit Louisville and make 
an investigation as to the character and extent of the fishery. Accord- 
ingly, on May 11 of the following year, when Mr. Sowders sent on six 
additional specimens, and wrote that the shad were then running in 
considerable numbers, it was arranged that I should visit Louisville at 
once. 
On the way out from Washington 1 stopped one day at Montgomery, 
W. Va., to make inquiries regarding the occurrence of shad in the 
Kanawha. 
Arriving at Louisville on May 15, I spent the next four days making 
investigations there. The shad were then running in some numbers, 
and many specimens were examined. 
It at once became evident that the Ohio shad was an undescribed 
species. Its publication, however, has been delayed in the hope that 
an opportunity might soon offer to trace the migration of the fish up 
the river from the Gulf. Other duties have not permitted such an 
investigation to be undertaken, and it now seems undesirable to delay 
longer the report upon the inquiries already made. 
