Iviii EEPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



the examination of, we might almost say, millions of stomachs of fish, 

 taken above the mouths of rivers, revealing nothing whatever in the 

 way of food, or in a very few instances only. Four cases only have 

 come to my knowledge where any food was detected, and that only 

 within a short distance of salt-water. Once returned to the ocean, the 

 shad feed voraciously; and although extremely. thin and emaciated when 

 emerging from the rivers, they soon fatten up. 



It is not very often that shad are taken in the sea, but they are cap- 

 tured in large numbers in the Bay of Fuudy in autumn, after returning 

 from their spawning-operations in the Saint John and other streams. 

 They are then taken in weirs , and are claimed to be of unsurpassed 

 excelleucp of' flesh. 



Once in the sea, of course there is no limit to the amount of food they 

 can obtain, this consisting of worms, small fishes, and most largely of 

 minute crustaceans, especially of the genus 3Iysis. 



The problem as to the possibility of naturalizing the shad in the great 

 akes, so that they may subsist there the greater part of the year and 

 find a supply of food, is more difficult of solution and one that can onl^' be 

 decided by experiment. We h^e, however, the interesting fact tha^ 

 the deep waters of the great lakes abound in certain species of minute 

 crustaceans, precisely similar to those occurring on the Atlantic coast, 

 and which, while consumed to a great extent by the white-fish, may be 

 presumed to be in suflicient surplus to feed an indefinite number of shad- 

 The experiment of stocking the lakes with shad has been already made 

 by Setll Green, who planted 15,000 in the Genesee Eiver, near Roches- 

 ter, in 1871. A number of these were subsequently taken, -in nets, and 

 it is thought probable that the spring of 1874 will witness the move- 

 ment of mature fish up the Genesee River. 



It is proposed also to try the experiment of introducing young shad 

 into the Great Salt Lake of Utah by placing the young in the Jordan 

 River; indeed, a beginning has already been made by the planting of 

 5,000. It is true that the water of the lake is excessively saline ; but 

 there is a large region adjacent to the mouths of the tributary streams, 

 more or less diluted, and it may be that the fish on running down into 

 the lake can gradually accustom themselves to its great density and 

 concentration. They will, at any rate, not sufi^er from want of food, 

 since the Artemia (a crustacean) and sundry dipterous larvce are found in 

 enormous numbers. 



A similar reasoning applies to the question of introducing salmon, 

 alewives, lobsters, oysters, &g., into the same waters. 



The experiment of placing shad in the Sacramento River, already 

 mentioned, initiated in 1871 as it was by the California State commis- 

 sioners, with the help of Seth Green, and continued in 1873 by the 

 United States Fish Commission, through Mr. Livingston Stone, may be 

 considered as an actual success. 



As already stated, the experiment of artificial propagation of shad 



