119 



been sixt}- per cent, roe shad to forty per cent, buck 

 shad. The average price for the entire season has 

 been twent}- cents for roe shad and ten cents for buck 

 shad. The lowest price they have sold for on au}^ one 

 day was ten cents for roe shad and five cents for bucks. 

 For quality and size, the Hudson 'River shad has been 

 good — rather better than for the last two or three years." 



With these figures as a basis, I find that the catch 

 of shad in the Hudson River in 1895 ^^'^iR^^^*^ 4i 044)^3 5 

 pounds, and that 693,366 roe shad brought $138,673.20, 

 and 462,244 buck shad brought $46,224.40, or a total 

 for the entire catch of $184,897.60. 



The mascalonge work at Chautauqua Lake is in 

 progress at this time, and probably 3,000,000 fry of 

 this species will be planted by the state. The masca- 

 longe of Chautauqua Lake, while structurally like the 

 St Lawrence River fish, is differently marked, and 

 wholly lacks the round brown spots of the latter. The 

 Chautauqua fish is blotched or banded on the sides 

 with rich brown on a light ground. I believe that no 

 other commission has attempted to cultivate 'the masca- 

 longe artificially. A number of experiments were 

 made in this work before the hatching of mascalonge 

 was successful. The eggs were tried in the hatching 

 jar and in shad boxes in runniug water, but finally the 

 eggs were placed in boxes with double screens top and 

 bottom to prevent the eggs being eaten by minnows 

 and other fish, and the boxes were sunk in the lake in 

 still water. 



It is difficult to obtain all the eggs from a fish at 

 one handling, but 265,000 eggs have been taken at one 

 time from a female of thirty-two pounds. Only one 

 maskallonge was killed last year of all that were hand- 

 led. After milting the eggs separate in three quarters 

 of an hour, and about ninety-seven per cent, of impreg-- 

 nated eggs are hatched. With water at 55° Fahrenheit 

 the fry hatch in about fifteen da3'S, and it requires 



