656 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [4] 
for the purpose. On arrival they were at once placed for final develop- 
ment in the cones above referred to. As soon as the fish were ready 
for distribution they were placed in transporting cans and then trans- 
ferred to the railroad depots for shipment. 
The experiment proved entirely successful, so large a percentage 
hatching out that the loss of eggs was scarcely appreciable, and the dis- 
tribution was readily made to all parts of the country. 
During the progress of the work, it was found that that sectior of the 
Potomac River immediately adjacent to Fort Washington was the most 
productive of ripe shad, and it was therefore deemed advisable to sta- 
tion a portion of the spawn-takers at this point. Permission having 
been obtained from the War Department, a building on the reservation 
was occupied as quarters for this portion of the force. The eggs when 
collected were placed in vessels suspended in the water, which kept them 
in good condition until they could be transferred to the hatching appa- 
ratus at the navy-yard. 
This sub-station was occupied until the 19th of June, when it was 
abandoned, as shad were no longer taken in sufficient numbers to in- 
duce further work at this point. 
Advantage was taken of the peculiar facilities of the navy-yard sta- 
tion for conducting several experiments for determining the minimum 
amount of water necessary for keeping young shad in good health and 
condition, as very often it is necessary to economize water both in the 
production of the fish and their transportation. These experiments de- 
monstrated that the eggs could be as successfully hatched with less than 
one-fourth the amount of water if an abundance of atmospheric air was 
introduced with the water. 
Many other experiments were conducted during this season which 
have resulted in material modifications in the forms of the apparatus 
used in the production of, and the vessels for transporting, young shad. 
On the 23d of May the first large car shipment was made from Wash- 
ington. Mr. George C. Wilkins, superintendent of the Pennsylvania sys- 
tem of railroads at Baltimore, having provided a commodious baggage 
car, and arranged for its movement on the passenger train as far south 
as the standard gauge roads extended, and also obtained from the con- 
necting lines a similar car at this terminal, about 2,000,000 of young shad 
were loaded in the car at Washington from the navy-yard station. One- 
half of these were successfully deposited in the rivers of South Carolina 
and the other half in those of Georgia. 
On June 6 another car-load, consisting of about 700,000, was shipped 
to Cincinnati in a car kindly loaned by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 
Company. There the fish were turned over to Dr. Griffith, the president 
of the Kentucky State Commission, who met the car in person and su- 
perintended the deposit of the fish in the rivers of Kentucky. 
The success at these stations in procuring shad in large numbers led 
to the inauguration of this system of shipping young shad by the car- 
