942 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Commissioner Moseley, of Virginia, says: "In the fall of 1876, our 

 limited means being devoted to trout and land-locked salmon, we turned 

 over the State's quota of California eggs to the Maryland commission. 

 In return, that commission hatched and deposited, of young salmon, dur- 

 ing the winter of 1876-77, in the Shenandoah, 78,400 ; in Occoquan, 

 16,000 ; and in Goose Creek, Loudoun, 32,000. Besides, a very large 

 portion of the above hatch was deposited in other tributaries of the Po- 

 tomac,- in the fish of which stream the people of this State have a com- 

 mon interest. It is no longer deemed a problem that this salmon will 

 flourish in our waters and return by instinct to the stream in which it 

 spent its infancy. Several have been caught in the Delaware and Sus- 

 quehanna Rivers, the first streams in which they were placed, weighing 

 from ten to fifteen pounds. In May last a fish weighing four pounds 

 was caught in James Eiver, at Bosher's Dam, nine miles above Rich- 

 mond. The fisherman, never having seen such a fish before, brought it 

 to Manchester, where gentlemen familiar with the Salmonidce recognized 

 it as one of that family. No doubt it was a California grilse, one of the lot 

 put in James Eiver in 1874-'75, at Lynchburg, by Dr. Robertson, which 

 had straggled back before its time. It is probable that more of them 

 may make their appearance next spring. Of the large number of these 

 fish placed in James River by the commission, in the winter of 1875-'76, 

 we hear that early in April last several were caught, from nine to ten 

 inches long, twelve miles above Norfolk. They were said to be moving 

 in solid column and with great rapidity ocean ward, and only the few 

 that fell out of line were captured in fyke-nets." (New Hampshire Re- 

 port 1878, pp. 27, 28, 29.) 



MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 



8had.^-The report of Kentucky has not yet come to hand, but the re- 

 port of Iowa states that " shad were caught at several places on the 

 Ohio River, the most notable case being at Louisville, Ky., where the 

 catch during the run was reported at from forty to one hundred per 

 day." This was in May and June, 1877, and a letter from Prof. Spencer 

 F. Baird, United States Commissioner, to Forest and Stream, vouches 

 for the fact that " a specimen sent him was the genuine white shad." 

 Other letters to Forest and Stream state that 600 genuine Atlantic 

 shad were caught at Louisville during the season, and trace them to the 

 young fry i)lanted, in behalf of the United States Fish Commission, by 

 Seth Green in 1872, viz : 30,000 in the Alleghany River, at Salamanca, 

 N. Y., and 25,000 in the Mississippi River, near Saint Paul ; and 200,000 

 planted by the United States Commissioner in July, 1872, also at Sala- 

 manca. '' In 1873, 100,000 shad-fry were placed in Greenbrier and New 

 Rivers, in Virginia, and about 55,000 in the Monongahela, in Pennsylva- 

 nia, and the Wabash, in Indiana ; and these may or may not have con- 

 tributed toward the supply met with at Louisville. The latter is pos- 



