654 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [2] 
On the 3d of May the first eggs were taken, and the production was 
gradually increased until about the middle of the month, when the max- | 
imum yield was obtained. The operations were carried on with varying 
success up to the 10th of June, the time at which the Maryland law re- 
quires fishing to cease. Up to this date 13,355,000 eggs had been pro- 
cured. 
As the eggs were procured only from those fish taken for market, and 
as none were taken for the express purpose of obtaining their eggs, the 
production was dependent upon the fishermen, and when the local laws 
required a cessation of fishing, there was, of course, no other source of 
supply, and the operations at this point were necessarily discontinued. 
The excessive drought during the month of May, and the prevalence 
of southerly winds, caused the salt or brackish water to extend unusually 
high up the Chesapeake Bay, the water becoming so brackish at the sta- 
tion as to make it advisable to move the entire equipment from Spesu- 
tie Narrows to a point above Havre de Grace where the water was en- 
tirely free from salt. This was done on the 30th of May. The advantage 
of having such floating apparatus as this station was provided with was 
demonstrated on the occurrence of this abnormal condition, as the equip- 
ment was moved without loss of fish, eggs, or time, to a locality some flve 
miles distant. 
The aggregate results of the season were materially lessened, how- 
ever, aS during the period when ripe breeders were most plentiful the 
gillers declined to let the agents of the Commission handle their catch 
on account of some dissatisfaction caused by a reduction in the price 
paid for the fish utilized for hatching purposes. The magnitude of the 
work having so materially increased, and the number of fish handled 
being so much greater than in previous years, it was found advisable 
to lessen the price offered for ripe shad, which, however, was always 
maintained above the ruling market rates. The fishermen, without due 
consideration of the subject, refused for a few days to allow their fish 
to be handled unless they were purchased at the same rate as in previ- 
ous years. However, after a temporary interruption, the fishermen ac- 
cepted the conditions, and the results of the season, although somewhat 
influenced by this interruption, were most gratifying, as the yield of this 
station, as already stated, aggregated between 12,000,000 and 13,000,000 
of young shad, an excess of over 2,000,000 in production beyond the yield 
of the two stations operated in this locality the previous year. 
On the 25th of May the first car-load shipment was made from this 
station, the car having been furnished by the Philadelphia, Wilmington 
and Baltimore Railroad Company. Over a million of young shad were 
transferred from Havre de Grace to the Nanticoke River and deposited 
in that stream near Seaford, in Delaware. This was effected without 
loss. 
On the 12th of June, while the fish on hand were being transferred 
from the hatching vessels to the depot for a shipment to Maine, a terrifie 
