50 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



It is among the anadromous fishes that man in a savage or semi-civ- 

 ilized state finds his most copious supply of food, depending sometimes 

 almost entirely upon it for subsistence through the year, eating it fresh 

 during the run and dried or smoked the rest of the time. 



The most prominent fishes under this head belong more especially to 

 groups of the salmon, the herring, the shad, and the sturgeon. It is 

 in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, so far as I am 

 aware, that the anadromous habit is seen in its grand development. 



]STo better illustration of the numbers in which auadromoas fish enter 

 the rivers can be given and the extent of diminution of the supply from 

 various causes, hereafter to be referred to, than a presentation of the 

 case as it relates to the Potomac River in the short distance between 

 its month and the Great Falls of the Potomac, only twelve miles above 

 Washington. Although, this stretch of water is even now very pro- 

 ductive, and annually becoming more and more so, as the result of care- 

 ful propagation, many years will elapse, if ever, before it gets up to 

 the measure of yield mentioned by Martin in his History of Virginia,* a 

 work published in 1835. It is proper to say that some old fishermen 

 along the river deny the accuracy of his statements in their detail, but 

 admit that the numbers taken were enormously in excess of the pres- 

 ent yield. I give, however, the statement, allowing it to speak for 

 itself: 



a As Alexandria is the shipping port of the District of Columbia, and 

 one of the principal marts for the immense fisheries of the Potomac, it 

 may be well to mention that in the spring of the year quantities of 

 shad and herrings are taken which may appear almost incredible. The 

 number of shad frequently obtained at a haul is 4,000 and upwards, and 

 of herrings from 100,000 to 300,000. In the spring of 1832 there were 

 taken in one seine at one draught a few more than 950,000 accurately 

 counted. The prosecution of the numerous fisheries gives employment 

 to a large number of laborers, and affords an opportunity to the poor to 

 lay in, at very reduced prices, food enough to last their families during 

 the whole year. The shad and herrings of the Potomac are transported 

 by land to all parts of the country to which there is a convenient ac- 

 cess from the river, and they are also shipped to various ports in the 

 United States and West Indies. The lowest prices at which these fish 

 ■ sell when just taken are 25 cents per thousand for herrings and $1.50 

 per hundred for shad, but they generally bring higher prices, often 

 $1.50 per thousand lor the former and from 63 to $4 per hundred for 



*Anew and comprehensive gazetteer of Virginia and the District of Columbia, 

 containing a copious collection of geographical, statistical, political, commercial, re- 

 ligious, moral, am! miscellaneous information, collected and compiled from the most 

 respectable and chiefly from original sources, by Joseph Martin. To which is added 

 a. history of Virginia from its first settlement to the year 17:>4 ; with an abstract of 

 the principal events from that period to the independence of Virginia, written ex- 

 pressly for the work by a citizen of Virginia. Charlottesville, published by Joseph 

 Martin. Moseley & Tompkins, printers, 1835, page 480. 



