152 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE 



year by year increased in size, until, to use the words of a 

 native of South Carolina, who lived many years near Sis- 

 tera Ferry, on the Savannah river, they are now equal to 

 the best Savannah river shad/ 



" The white shad have chiefly been taken in the fish- 

 traps at the foot of the fall at Wetumpka and near Tusca- 

 loosa. One, I am informed, has been taken from a trap at 

 the head of the Coosa river, near Rome, in this state, and 

 only some sixty miles below the locality in which the eggs 

 were deposited by Major Cooper, in a tributary of the 

 Etowah river. I also learn that some few have been taken 

 with a dip-net near Selma. 



" I think that we may safely conclude that the white 

 shad may be as successfully established in the Mississippi 

 river as it has been in the Alabama. Since feeding-grounds 

 for that delicious fish exist at the mouth of one river flow- 

 ing into the Gulf of Mexico, may they not exist at the 

 mouths of other or all the rivers discharging into that 

 sea ? Time must answer that question. 



"Savannah, April 19th, 1866." 



It is to be regretted that some memoranda concerning 

 the incubation were not given in this communication. It 

 would have been a matter of much interest to compare 

 observations of this kind with those of Mr. Lyman, of the 

 Massachusetts Fish Commission, who says, " Green was not 

 able to hatch more than 2 per cent, of the ova deposited 

 on the natural river-bed." 



The following account of the hatching of shad-sjawn at 

 Holyoke is from the admirable report of the commission 



