154 Migration a?id Return of Fish. 



Having been told by William Ward, that himself and John Ro- 

 berts, cooper, had marked a number of small shad, the preceding 

 fall season, in their passage down Schuylkill, for the purpose of 

 knowing whether they returned to the same waters ; the following 

 spring, I observed one fish ; and found the marks mentioned by 

 said Ward, viz. a piece cut off the upper tail fin, or fork. We caught 

 on the same day, at Port Royal, seven fish, bearing the same mark, 

 of full growth and size. There were two or three hundred fish 

 taken and sold on the same day, and among them there might have 

 been more of the same mark. What induced the search was, that 

 Joseph Johnson, one of the fishermen, took up a large shad, and 

 observed, — " here is one of William Ward*s mark !"* — I was in- 

 formed that at Peewee, the same season, seventeen of the same mark 

 were caught. At an island, nincy and at another island called the 

 Welch island, eleven. The four fisheries are all within a mile of 

 each other. The shad were marked at the last mentioned fishery. 



JACOB COLP. 

 Roxborough, Philadelfihia County^ 

 March 10, 1814. 



We, the subscribers, have been long acquainted with William 

 Ward and Jacob Colp, and know them to be persons of veracity, 

 deserving full credit. 



WILLIAM HAGY, 

 JOSEPH PRICE, 

 JOHN BUSH, 

 JONATHAN JONES, 

 Montgomery County ^ March 10, 1814. 



* This shad is said to have weighed above eight pounds. At the place 

 where the fin had been cut, there grew a lump, or gristle, about the size of 

 a pea. This appeared in every marked fish. R. V 



