37 



even more abundant than the females, at which time the haul- 

 seines are in full operation, and no doubt the males are much 

 diminished before the close of the hauling season ; this tends 

 to produce a scarcity, and helps to account for the few taken 

 by the gill- nets. We cannot state positively as to the relative 

 proportion of ripe male and female, as taken in the gill nets 

 in the early part of the season, for we only adopted the plan 

 of taking the spawn from the gill-nets after the close of the 

 haul-seine season. 



Although the number of eggs gathered, and the number of 

 fish hatched was very much less than we expected, yet the 

 experience which we obtained will enable us during the 

 coming Spring to operate with much greater chances of 

 success. 



The surrounding conditions at the "Head of the Bay" are very 

 much more favorable to Shad hatching than those to be found 

 anywhere else in the State, and our principal operations will 

 be conducted at this point during the coming season. 



On the 2d of May we established a camp, in charge of 

 William H. Hines, at Bristol Landing, on the Patuxent river, 

 the same point that we operated the year before, but as the 

 catch of fish was so small at this fishery, we deemed it advi- 

 sable to break up the camp, which we accordingly did on the 

 12th day of May, hoping that the services of the men there 

 employed would be much more remunerative to the State by 

 moving them to the Potomac river, where the fish were taken 

 in very much larger numbers. 



Had we met with the success on this river which we ex- 

 pected, we would have transported by rail a large quantity of 

 fish to the Patuxent, and deposited them in this stream where 

 the railroad crosses it. 



We are convinced, from our attempts and failures on the 

 several smaller rivers of the State, that until these rivers can 

 be brought up to their former degree of productiveness, that 

 it will not be profitable to establish camps on them ; that we 

 must increase the Shad of these rivers by hatching them in 



