10 



rivers successively, I'rom Florida t(» Nova tScolia as tjie season 

 advanced, is no doubt incorrect, for the more Southern Kivers 

 do not continue their abundance, but those rivers formerly 

 abundant which have been exhausted by overllsliing, or ob- 

 structions preventing the fish from reaching their spawning 

 grounds, continue unproductive, irrespective of their geo- 

 graphical positions, and those rivers in which artificial pro- 

 pagation has been resorted to, continue year by year to be 

 more and more productive. The immense numbers and the 

 «xtreme delicacy of the shad, which prevents their being 

 handled, and the probable length of time which they remain 

 in the sea, has rendered it impossible to ascertain with that 

 accuracy, with which the motions of the salmon have been 

 determined by marking them, but, it is reasonable to take it 

 for granted, tliat the same natural laws govern tlie shad in 

 their migrations. It has been ascertained by marking the 

 salmon in various Avays, such as cutting off the adapose dorsal 

 fin, when they are preparing for their first visit to the sea, 

 and by attaching tags, etc., that the salmon invariably re- 

 turn to the rivers in which they were bred. We, therefore 

 report, that? the best means to re-stock our rivers, would be to 

 establish hatching stations on as many of them as spawners 

 can be obtained, and the fish should be turned into the streams 

 as high up a practicable^ and that the maximnm amount of 

 ova be collected each year. To accustom the young fish to 

 the Tipper waters, and to create in them a desire to asc}nd to 

 the sources of our rivers, in case fishways are erected to pro- 

 vide their passage over the Great Falls of the Potomac, and 

 other obstructions on the Potomac and Clunpowder, we trans- 

 ported and turned, into the Potomac, at Piedmont, some sixty 

 thousand young shad, and into the Gunpowder, near Cock- 

 eyesville, some thirty thousand. Should efficient fishways be 

 erected, the survivors will return to the upper waters of these 

 streams when adults for the purpose of sjjawning, ami they 

 will become plentifully stocked with this and other anodroraas 

 fishes. 



As the appropriation did not admit of our establishing more 

 than tAvo hatching camps for shad, we sought the aid of the 

 U. S. Commissioner on the Potomac River, that we might 

 devote the means at our disposal to those rivers, entirely 



