KEroirr of commissioner of fish and fisheries. *20 



le^al limit conl<l not l)c ])i'('V(;nt('(l, nor would it iinilcc iiiii(-h diircrciice 

 in the result. It is to the wholesale ^•atheiin":^- in, by pounds and seines, 

 of these youngs fish by the ton, that the deerease in llieir nund)er is 

 espeeially to be ascribed. 



13. — WORK ACCOMPLISHED IX 1S77. 

 The Shad. 



iStaiioii on the SvfKjiichonna River. — Reference has been made in pre- 

 vious re[)orts to the difficulty of obtaining a sufficient sn])i3ly of shad 

 in the Southern waters of the United States to warrant the labor and 

 expense of occu])yin<>' them, the depletion of most of the streams having 

 been carried to such an extent as to make it almost impossible to find 

 enough spawning shad to commence the work of restoration. 



Accordingly, in arranging the i^lans for 1877. it was determined to 

 concentrate elibrts ui)on the Susquehanna and Connecticut Eivers, in 

 the hope of securing the needed material for the purpose. Another ob- 

 ject in this selection of stations w^as to test, at one of them at least, the 

 efficiency of the new method of Mr. T. B. Ferguson, fisli commissioner of 

 Maryland, constituting a radical change in the mode of hatching shad, 

 and overcoming many difficulties attending the use of both the Green 

 and the Brackett hatching-boxes. These, as alieady explained in pre- 

 vious reports, consist of boxes with wire-gauze b<3ttoms of about one and 

 a half square feet area, fastened in gangs to posts in a running stream. 

 The eggs placed in these boxes receive the influence of the ever-chang- 

 ing current and are hatched out. The young fish also are kept in the 

 boxes until the time for trausi)ortation arrives, generally within twenty- 

 four hours after birth. 



The protection of the eggs from their enemies is one of the chief fac- 

 tors ill this form of apparatus, ilany practical difficulties, however, 

 have occurred in the use of the- e boxes. In streams where the spawn- 

 ing shad can be obtained at some distance aV'Ove the mouth where there 

 is a constant current, as in the Hudson and Connecticut, some of the 

 principal difficulties are avoided, and the work can be prosecuted for 

 the most jiart with comparatively little failure. Even here, however, 

 the dilnculty of reaching the boxes to give proper attention to the eggs 

 and young fish, the danger arising from sudden freshets, from floating 

 lumber, logs, &c., is very great, and there is usually a verj" considerable 

 percentage of loss arising from casualties. The difficulties become very 

 much greater, however, when the work is carried on in tidal waters 

 where the current is mainly derived from the flow of the tide, which 

 changes its direction twice a day, with a period of calm between. Even 

 a gentle wind blowing against the tide will also neutralize the current 

 and endanger the result. The boxes, which at one tide are floated in a 

 given direction with the change, are brought round so as to float in an 

 opposite one. In changing, they frequently become entangled, espe- 

 cially in stormy weather, and are upset and the contents spilled out — a 

 result likely to happen at any time with a sudden blow and the conse- 



