REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. XXXVII 



The entire take of eggs at Havre de Grace amounted to 12,730,000 ; 

 the largest number secured at one time being 1,940,000 from 97 spawners, 

 on the 29fch of May. The total shipments and distribution of lish from 

 this point amounted to over 9,000,000. 



In the absence of Mr. Ferguson, the interests of Maryland were cared 

 for by Mr. Thomas Hughlett, another member of the State fish commis- 

 sion. 



The total production of the season at the three stations of Avoca, the 

 Potomac, and at Havre de Grace amounted to 15,500,000 fish. The 

 shipments extended to all parts of the United States, as far even as 

 California, a fourth transmission having been made to the Sacramento 

 River — a stream in which the success of the work in the past has been 

 notably manifest. 



Special acknowledgments are due on the part of the United States 

 Fish Commission to Col. Marshall Parks, the president of the Albe- 

 marle and Chesapeake Canal, who not only tendered the use of the 

 canal, passing all of our vessels to and fro free of toll charges, but 

 having learned that toll had been collected from the steamer Lookout 

 on her first voyage of reconnaissance, made in December, 1876, gen- 

 erously refunded the amount collected. 



Col. Parks has, throughout all of our operations on Albemarle Sound, 

 given us every aid, and by his cordial co-operation has evidenced his 

 interest in the development of the resources and the future jirosperity 

 of that region. 



A i^leasant feature of the shad hatching operations at Havre de Grace 

 consisted in the visits made by various persons to the station. Thus, 

 on the 5th of June, I accompanied the President and the Secretary of 

 the Navy, with a party of other invited guests, in a special car, return- 

 ing the same night, and at a later date, a number of members of Con- 

 gress. Many rei^orters from New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore 

 also embraced the opportunity to become familiar with the aims and 

 results of the Commission, and to publish an account of the same. 



To complete the history of the operations of the year 1878, connected 

 •with the j)ropagation of shad on the Atlantic coast, I may remark 

 that Colonel McDonald, fish commissioner of Virginia, made a station 

 at Tobago Bay, near the mouth of the Eoanoke Eiver, and hatched out 

 about 1,960,000 fish between the 3d of May and the 1st of June. All 

 of these were placed directly m the Eoanoke, and cannot fail to make 

 then* presence known within the next three or four years. 



I am gratified in being able to state that the labors of the United 

 States Commission in introducing shad into new or depleted waters 

 have commenced to show results during the year 1878. Some of the 

 earliest efforts in regard to stocking the rivers with shad were prosecuted 

 in connection with the Sacramento Eiver, a shipment of 12,000 fish 

 having been made June 19, 1871, by Seth Green at the expense of the 



