Other Fresh-Water Fishes With Free Eggs. 197 



the eggs, those with fungus adhering to the net, which 

 was washed overboard and tried again. This kept a 

 man at it all the time, and the fungus did the same ; the 

 cleaning was imperfect, but was the best we could de- 

 vise. In the jars the dead eggs collect on top of the 

 moving mass, the outlet tube is lowered on them, and 

 out they go before a bit of fungus has formed, and one 

 man can do the work of ten as we first did it. 



Shad eggs are very delicate and will not bear much 

 handling. They are sometimes floated on flannel trays 

 to take to a station, but they must be handled more 

 carefully than trout eggs need be. 



The young shad swims from the -time it leaves the 

 shell, and is kept two or three days before turning out, 

 until its sac is absorbed and it can take food. When 

 liberated it strikes for the middle of the river, contrary 

 to the habit of most young fishes, and escapes destruc- 

 tion there by its inconspicuousness. It is a mere shrecl 

 of albumen. I have had men look into a lo-gallon can, 

 where there were 30,000 shad fry, and declare that they 

 could see nothing. After pointing out the little squirm- 

 ing things the usual question was : "Do you think they 

 will ever amount to anything?" As if every shad was 

 not once a mere "shred of albumen.'* 



If it had not been for the artificial propagation of 

 shad the supply would have long since been exhausted. 

 The increase of railroad facilities has widened the area 

 of consumption. Fifty years ago the distribution of 

 shad scarcely reached Buffalo; now it includes a city 

 as far West as Omaha. The rivers are more prolific of 

 shad than ever, if we except the Connecticut, where 

 their propagation was suspended for a number of years, 

 and it is all due to the fishculturist. 



There were no shad on our Pacific coast ; they were 



