12 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
SOME RESULTS OF ACCLIMATIZATION. 
The supply of shad on the Pacific Coast, to which attention has been 
drawn in several reports of the Commission, continues to increase, and 
the augmentation in the catch has been attended with such a marked 
reduction in the price to the consumer that the fish has been placed 
within the reach of every one, the retail value being much less than on 
the Atlantic Coast. Within a few years the shad has thus not only 
been acclimatized along the entire coast south of Alaska, but has become 
one of the cheapest fish of the region. The inquiries of the Commission 
disclosed a catch of over 700,000 pounds in 1892, having a value to the 
fishermen of over $20,000. : 
Over 50,000,000 shad fry have been planted in the streams of the 
Mississippi Valley without producing any marked results. The waters 
of this region are not so well adapted to shad as those of the Atlantic 
and Pacific coasts; the rivers are usually extremely muddy and subject 
to heavy freshets; the headwaters of the main streams are too remote 
from salt water to permit the shad to make the annual migration which 
occurs in the coast rivers; and except in the shorter rivers of the Gulf 
Coast, the shad would have to remain permanently in the streams. 
Instances of the capture of full-grown shad in some rivers of the Gulf 
Coast have from time to time been recorded. Twoadditional references 
may be mentioned: Under date of March 2, 1893, Mr. B. F. Sutter, of 
Montgomery, Ala., wrote that he had a shad, taken in the Alabama 
River, weighing 4,5; pounds; that the shad were planted in the river 
about six years before and are growing very fast; and that they are 
finely flavored fish. Mr. S.D. Ingram, of Pass Christian, Miss., stated 
in a letter dated June 3, 1893, that some shad had been taken near that 
place in the spring of that year. 
The increase in striped bass in California is relatively as great as 
that in shad. The fish is now one of the most highly esteemed products 
of the west coast fisheries, and the high prices which prevailed a few 
years ago have been so reduced by the larger catches that the fish is 
generally available for food, although still ranging much above salmon 
in value. The distribution of the striped bass is still restricted to Cali- 
fornia. The yield in 1892 was about 50,000 pounds, valued at over 
$6,000. 
The following brief account of the history and results of the intro- 
duction of shad and striped bass to the Pacific Coast was prepared by 
the present writer, with the Commissioner’s approval, and printed in the 
issue of Science for August 18, 1893. The catch shown, embodying 
the preliminary returns, differs somewhat from the actual figures given 
elsewhere: 
FISH ACCLIMATIZATION ON THE PACIFIC COAST. 
Few experiments in fish-culture have been ecomomically more important and suc- 
cessful than those which have been conducted by the United States Fish Commission 
with reference to the Pacific Coast. Coincident with the propagation of native fishes, 
the introduction of non-indigenous species has been undertaken, with results that 
