48 



RANDOM NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY. 



The Shad Fishery. 



Professor Spencer F. Baiid, of the 

 United States Fish Commission, telegraphed 

 yesterday to Mr. Henry T. Root, of this city, 

 of the State Commission, that one million 

 more of shad would be sent from Washing- 

 ton for the tributaries of Narragansett Bay ; 

 and that they were to be placed in the Palmer 

 River. This stream has its head waters in 

 Massachusetts, in the vicinity of the old Or- 

 leans, or "Shad Factory," and empties into 

 the bay through the town of Warren. 

 This river for years has been renowned for 

 the immense quantities of shad taken from 

 its waters, its natural conditions being 

 especially favorable for the propagation of 

 this kind of fish. That the United States 

 Government is aware of this is shown by the 

 fact that the number of fish to be placed 

 there now is just double the number sent 

 here in 1881, 500,000 being sent on and 

 placed in the same spot. 



The theory in regard to placing these shad 

 is, that they mature in three years and then 

 return to spawn to the waters where they 

 were originally placed. That is, these shad 

 that are placed there now will strive to get 

 back there in 1888, wherever they may hap- 

 pen to be. This is pretty thoroughly de- 

 monstrated by the fact that the 500,000 

 which were put there in 1881 did return in 

 1884, for shad had never been so plen- 

 tiful in a great man}' } ears as the}' were in 

 1884, and are now. Formed}' the price was 

 from twenty-five to thirty cents a pound ; 

 now good shad are retailing at twelve cents. 

 These fish come gratuitously from the gov- 

 ernment and cost the state nothing, except 

 the expense of handling them when they get 

 here. 



The fish are hatched artificially in Wash- 

 ington in glass jars, under the direction of 

 the United States Fish Commission, the de- 

 tailed management being under Col. Mar- 

 shall McDonald, and the government appro- 

 priates for this business S250,000 per year. 

 The eggs from which the fish are hatched are 

 taken every day, while the shad are running, 

 from the fish in the Potomac River, and being 

 impregnate with a very small quantity of milt 

 from the male shad, are taken to Washing- 

 ington every night where they are hatched. 

 The government has stations all along the 

 Potomac River, where the fish are caught in 



seines. After being hatched they are about 

 half an inch long, and in this form are sent 

 to the various streams throughout the coun- 

 try favorable to the propagation of shad. 



Formerly these eggs were hatched in 

 wooden boxes in the current of the Potomac 

 river, but various improvements have been 

 made lately in this hatching process, and 

 now they are hatched in cylindrical glass ves- 

 sels. The top of the jar is closed by a me- 

 tallic disk, perforated with two holes five- 

 eighths of an inch in diameter, one admitting 

 the tube which introduces the water into the 

 jar, and the other a tube which serves as an 

 outlet for the water and the removal of the 

 dead eggs from the surface. The current of 

 water flowing in through one of the tubes is 

 introduced at the bottom and filters up 

 through the eggs, enveloping each egg in a 

 stratum of fresh water, and placing each under 

 the best possible conditions of development. 

 The dead eggs will all remain at the top, 

 while the fertile eggs will keep together at 

 the bottom. As soon as the fish are 

 hatched out they begin to swim around vig- 

 orously in the hatching jar. They pass into 

 the exit tube and are carried over into 

 the receiver, in which they may be collected 

 to any number desired, being retained there 

 without injury until it is convenient to make 

 a shipment. From 15,000 to 18,000 eggs 

 may be readily placed in each jar. The station 

 where this operation is carried on has the ca- 

 pacity of hatching '2 1,000,000 at one time, and 

 a capacity of 900,000,000 for one season. 

 This process of hatching is a great improve- 

 ment over the old system, the incubation of 

 eggs being at first eflf'ected in troughs having 

 the bottoms covered with a layer of gravel, 

 upon which the eggs were placed, and over 

 which a current of fresh water was allowed 

 to flow. The system now in use was devel- 

 oped by Col. Marshall McDonald, and was 

 exhibited in May, 1881, before a meeting 

 of the Biological Society held in the base- 

 ment of the Smithsonian Institution, and in 

 the spring of 1882 it was decided to convert 

 the old Armory building into what is now 

 known as the Central Hatching and Distrib- 

 uting Station. — Providence Journal, May 9, 1885. 



TAXI- 

 DER- 

 MISTS . 



and Collectors of Ornitholog- 

 ical Specimens. Send for n- 

 lustrated Circular of I'dCKET 

 ■^HOT (tUNs, espfcially adapted 

 ,'or Small Birds; Roods war- 

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