raught, none ii[)e: saw large number split Monday; roe tirnii 

 generally. 



May 24tli. — Morning catch one hundred, none ripe ; eA'e- 

 ning catch fifty- eight, four ripe, 80,000 eggs; eggs of »Satur- 

 day doing well; up river seine caught none; alewives made 

 their appearance at '-the Rocks/' from this tact, some fisher- 

 men predict immediate decline of shad. 



May 25th. — Morning catch only twenty-five ; evening 

 catch one hundred and one, six ripe ; yielded one hundred 

 and fifty thousand eggs. Lot No. 9 taken Saturday, nearly 

 all hatched, lost about twenty-five per cent. Lot No. 10, 

 taken Monday, doing welL 



May 26tlK — Morning catch none ; Lot No. 11 taken Tues- 

 <Iay, looking, except one box, very well ; evening, catch one 

 hundred and sixteen, took spawn from 18; many eggs had a 

 dull look, even when ripe; in some fish all were dead ; this 

 we find generally the case when a fish bears marks of a gill- 

 net; in some cases when no injury is perceptible, we find all 

 the spawn dead. We think that wliipping the river, thus 

 terrifying the sliad, injures the eggs ; the eggs taken are 

 estimated at 250,000, (Lot 12.) 



May 27th.. — Morning haul yielded only one; evening haul 

 eighty-seven. Stripped ten females and took 200,000 eggs. 

 In several fish, eggs dull color; many of which failed to im- 

 ])regnate, though treated with greatest care. 



May 28th. — Caught thirty-six, mostly females, stripped 

 eight, but more than half the eggs failed to imgregnate, ob- 

 tained one from a giller, just as he took it from the net : 

 stripped it very carefully, and milted immediately, using very 

 little water, stirring gently until the milt was thoroughly 

 diffused through the mass. The milt floAved freely, and was 

 taken from a fish not quite dead. The eggs were transparent 

 but slightly pale. Not more than forty per cent, of these, 

 however, showed impregnation. As this failure to impreg- 

 nate has been experienced only since the hot weather, I am 

 disposed to attribute it partly, at least, to the high tempera- 

 ture of the water in the shallow jjarts of the river throu<^h 

 which the Shad are obliged to pass. We have recorded a 

 temperature of 82°, and have no doubt that farther down the 

 river, on the large flats it has been frequently higher. 



May 29th. — Morning catch 22, some ripe males, no ripe- 

 females ; preserved vial of milt for night catch ; at uighi 

 caught 24 ; stripped ten females, found only dead spawn, 

 every egg failing to impregnate. 



May 30th. — Sunday morning from one seine haul eighty- 

 nine, saw them cut, the roe was firm in many, apj^arently 

 weeks from maturity, in others nearly ripe and dead. Even- 



