LIV REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



along tlie New England coast. Many investigations were made and a 

 rational theory in regard to the condition and improvement of certain 

 coast fisheries was prepared and published by him in the following year. 



In 1872, a committee of the American Fish Ciilturists Association 

 urged upon Congress the importance of an appropriation to supply use- 

 ful food-fishes to such rivers and lakes of the country as were the com- 

 mon property of the nation, but which, not being under the jurisdiction 

 of one State, had been left unattended to. An appropriation was ulti- 

 mately made and put at the command of the United States Commis- 

 sioner. These appropriations have been made year by year, and year 

 by year new varieties of fish have been taken into consideration, 

 and the field of operations extended, although still confined almost ex- 

 clusively to species of national importance, and their introduction into 

 rivers and lakes which State or private enterprise cannot cover. 



Among the more important species now cared for by the United States 

 Fish Commission, may be mentioned the shad, the fresh-water herring, 

 or ale wives, the striped bass, the salmon of Maine, the laud-locked sal- 

 mon of Maine, the salmon of California, and the German carp. 



The importance of increasing the supply of shad already existing in 

 a given river is easily appreciable, and the desirability of introducing 

 them into rivers where they had been previously unknown is equally evi- 

 dent. As the result, partially or entirely, of the efforts of the United 

 States Commission, the Sacramento River, and many streams of the 

 Mississippi Valley and of the Gulf of Mexico, where this fish was pre- 

 viously unknown, have been largely stocked with it, and it is hoped 

 that in a few years it will constitute a very important element of the 

 food supply of the country. A statement of what has been done in this 

 connection will be found in the reports of the Commission. Thus, in the 

 year 1873, about 200,000 dimuuitive fish, averaging a quarter of an inch in 

 length, were placed in the headwaters of the Alleghany Kiver, in Weseru 

 New York. These fish, or such of them as escaped the perils of infancy, 

 passed down to the Gulf of Mexico and there obtained their growth. 

 In 1877, or at the end of the four years required for their full develop- 

 ment, they re-entered the Mississippi on their returu to the place whence 

 they had started in 1873. On their passage upward they passed Louis- 

 ville at a time when the river seines were in full operation, and the fish- 

 ermen were surprised to find among their hauls large numbers of fine- 

 looking fish of a kind entirely unknown to them. It was soon shown, 

 however, by those familiar with this famous fish, that they were the gen- 

 uine white shad, of which it is estimated that no less than 600, from 

 three to five pounds in weight, were taken during the run past Louis- 

 ville. Additional captures were recorded at other points of the Ohio 

 and its tributary rivers. Specimens of these shad are now carefully ])ve- 

 served in the National Museum. 



The eastern salmon has for many years been unknown in the waters 

 of the United States, except to a limited degree in the Kennebec, Pe- 



