38 



large numbers at the Head of the Bay, and then transporting 

 the young fish to these rivers after they are hatched. 



It is beh'eved that passing their minority in the rivers in 

 which they are placed, they will return to the same stream 

 when mature, for the purpose of spawning. In this way we 

 hope to increase the yield, until this fish is taken in suffi- 

 ciently large quantities to warrant the establishment of sepa- 

 rate camps on each river of importance in the State. 



The great difficulty the Commission has met with has been 

 to secure skilled labor, but it has been our aim each year to 

 instruct one or two more of our own citizens in the duties 

 connected with Shad hatching, and it is hoped by the time 

 these rivers are better stocked, that we will have a suffi- 

 cient nnmber of trained men in the State to multiply the 

 points at which we can conduct operations. It would be of 

 great permanent advantage to the State if each year during 

 our operations in Shad hatching we were able to employ 

 a man from each county in the Shad regions, so that in 

 the course of a few years we could have experts in all portions 

 of the State. 



During the season of Trout and Salmon hatching we might 

 also have representatives from the upper mountain regions of 

 our State, who could be trained in the manipulation of the 

 fish peculiar to those regions. 



That there has been a very considerable decrease in the 

 yield of the fisheries of the Potomac river, and those on the 

 Chesapeake Bay, is evidenced by the abandonment of very 

 many shores, formerly remunerative to their operators. The 

 alarming extent of this decrease appears more clearly by a 

 comparison of the yield of the fisheries of the Potomac, as 

 given in "Martin's Gazetteer of Virginia and the District of 

 Columbia," published in 1835.* It is stated therein that the 

 number of fisheries on the Potomac in the j)revious year was 



*We extract this quotation from the report of the United States Com- 

 toissioner, for the years of 1873 to '74, and '74 to '75, page XVII. 



