42 Fish Culturists' Association. 



up to their accustomed haunts over the dams and through the 

 ways, but the shad are still afraid of the fish-ways, and timid 

 about ascending them. The shad is an exceedingly timid fish. 

 It has been said of it that it is afraid of its own shadow, and 

 possibly it may have derived its name from that fact. How- 

 ever, in the course of time, as they become accustomed to the 

 fish-ways, they may lose their timidity in that respect. 



They had built a fish-way here in Pennsylvania at Columbia. 

 It is 105 by 60 feet. It has been built with an inclination that 

 does not cause the water to run faster than at a rate of eight 

 miles an hour. A fish that cannot go up through a current 

 running at that rate must indeed be a poor, miserable creature. 

 Large numbers of shad have passed up through that fish- way, 

 but still it has not been as successful as we anticipated it would 

 be. How to better it is now the question. He was satisfied that 

 if the shad wanted to go through they could do so without the 

 least difficulty, and that very considerable numbers did go 

 through is shown by the quantity of shad that have been caught 

 further up the Susquehanna. He was in hope that the progeny 

 of the eight or ten thousand shad that have gone up the stream 

 heretofore will come back in succeeding years, and thus, after 

 a while, the difficulty be overcome. The run this year, however, 

 was the poorest known for fifty years. The shad which were 

 hatched in 1873 are due next year, and he hoped that they and the 

 California salmon will come back together. Should eight or 

 ten thousand go through this year without difficulty, these will 

 spawn in the river above, and the supposition is that after going 

 down to the sea, the spawn will return, and at the usual season 

 each year the number will be increased. If the scaring of the 

 .fish could be prevented all woidd be well. As it is, the number 

 of shad caught above the fish-ways of our rivers exceed any 

 number in other States. The State was willing to give us 



