[5] SHAD DISTRIBUTION, 1883. 805 



Eggs for Eurcipe. — Iii addition to the distribution covered b,v this 

 table, 50,000 shad eggs were sent from Battery Station to Mr. n. C. 

 Mercer, of Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Mr. Mercer had 

 arranged to sail for Europe on the North German Lloyd steamer Eider 

 April 28, and expected to reach Hiiningen, Alsace, in ten days. He 

 wished to take some shad eggs with him, and try to reach the Danube 

 before they perished. He proposed to keep down the temperature of 

 the eggs as much as possible while on board the steamer, by the use of 

 ice. On April 27, 1886, Mr. Grabill forwarded the eggs to him. When 

 he reached Southampton he found inaay of them dead, and the remain- 

 der died before he reached Bremen, to his great disappointment. 



Stocking the Colorado. — An attempt to acclimate shad in the 

 Colorado River of the West, and to establish fisheries on tho Colorado, 

 Gila, and other tributaries of the Gulf of California, was commenced 

 by the deposit of 983,000 fish in 1SS1 and 998,000 eggs in 1885, and 

 was continued the present season by a deposit of 850,000 eggs, thus 

 making a total of 2,831,000, all of which were deposited at The Needles. 

 These plants are considered sufficient to determine whether the waters 

 present such conditions as will assure the establishment of a run of 

 shad in the streams tributary to this gulf. The evidence of success 

 will be looked for in the capture of mature shad in the season of 1888, 

 or possibly of male or buck shad in 1S87. It is not proposed to prose- 

 cute this experiment further. 



Stocking the Columbia River. — An unsuccessful attempt was 

 made in 1886 to transfer shad from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. 

 Detentions on the way consumed so much time that the fry were all lost. 

 In order to guard against loss occasioned by delay en route, the present 

 year arrangements were made to send eggs as well as fry. Car No. 3, 

 with J. F. Ellis in charge, was detailed for the purpose. The car was 

 equipped with tanks for storing and a steam-pump for circulating tho 

 water. Two stands of McDonald jars, with specially designed glass 

 aquaria for collecting and holding the fry, completed the equipment of 

 the car as a moving hatchery." The car left Havre de Grace May 9 

 with 1,000,000 young shad, 200,000 eggs on trays, and 385,000 eggs in 1 

 the McDonald hatching-jars. Mr. E. M. Robinson went on board to take 

 charge of the hatching. The fry were transported with a loss of 50 per 

 cent, while the eggs on trays were all lost. The 3S5,000 eggs in jars 

 hatched and were planted in the Willamette River, with a loss of less, 

 than 10 per cent. The success of this experiment has so important a 

 bearing upon the methods of our work, and points out such possibilities, 

 that Mr. Ellis's report relative to the incubation and hatching of the 

 eggs on the way is given.* 



Washington, D, C, March 1, 1887. 



* May 9, 1886. The 585,000 eggs arrived at the car at 2.20 p. m., 200,000 of which were; 

 put on trays in an ice-box. The other 385,000 came to the car in two Wroten buckets,: 

 and were put in four McDonald jars at 3.30 p. m. The pump was then started and a 



