FISHERY PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES. 239 
On the interesting question of the benefits produced by the practice 
the Commissioner says that the results obtained have been difficult 
of exact determination ; that good has followed is shown by the 
continued increase in the value of the fisheries demonstrated by 
carefully collected statistics. He urges that in cases where species 
have been introduced into waters from which they were naturally 
absent it is clearly shown what is possible of accomplishment, re- 
ferring to the results of the importation of shad and striped bass to 
the Pacific coast, and of trout and white fish into streams and lakes 
of the Yellowstone National Park, formerly barren of food-fish. 
We may turn at this point from the Report of the Commissioner 
to the Report on Statistics by Hugh M. Smith, M.D., in order to 
ascertain if we can obtain a more quantitative estimate of the results 
of the piscicultural operations. Concerning the shad we find it 
stated that this fish has become distributed along the entire Pacific 
coast north of Monterey Bay, California, and occurs in special 
abundance in the Sacramento River. Notwithstanding the fact that 
the fishermen have provided themselves with no apparatus especially 
adapted to the capture of shad, 101,071 pounds were taken in 1888, 
and 170,500 pounds in 1889. We are told that the quantity caught 
affords no idea of the abundance of the fish, and it is thought that 
the use of suitable apparatus will demonstrate the existence of large 
bodies of these fish in all the coast waters between Southern 
California and Puget Sound. But nevertheless it naturally occurs 
to the reader to wonder what proportion the amount captured on 
the Pacific coast bears to that taken on the Atlantic. This curiosity 
cannot be satisfied out of this Report. After some search we dis- 
cover the statement that $482,403 was the value of the shad taken 
on the South Atlantic division of the coast of the United States in 
1890, but this is not enough to enable one to make a comparison. 
There is, however, a lengthy and detailed paper on the Fisheries of 
the Pacific Coast in the Commissioner’s Report for 1888, published 
1892, and in this we find that the value of the shad captured on 
that coast in 1888 was $7063, which shows that although the shad 
has certainly been successfully introduced, the value of the yield on 
the Pacific side was only ;5 of that of the South Atlantic States. 
Planting of shad on the Pacific slope was apparently commenced in 
the Sacramento River in 1880. The striped bass (Roccus lineatus), 
though introduced some years before the shad, is stated to be less 
abundant and less widely distributed than the latter. It was chiefly 
found in San Francisco Bay, where specimens as much as 40 lbs. in 
weight have been taken, although the average weight is only 8 or 
10 lbs. In 1888 only about 1000 lbs. reached the San Francisco 
market, but in 1889 they were more plentiful. This is all the statistica] 
