14 



some escaped, and in eighteen hundred and sixtj-seven, large fish, re- 

 turned from the ocean, wore taken in tlie river. Shad were formerly 

 plentiful in all the rivers emptying into the Atlantic Ocean from Georgia 

 to the St. Lawrence. They, therefore, frequent warmer waters than the 

 salmon. Over-fishing, traps, pounds, weirs, small meshed seines, and 

 dams without fishways at last nearly exterminated them. Through the 

 efforts of the Fish Commissioners of the several Eastern States they are 

 again becoming plentiful. For a number of years all efforts at the arti- 

 ficial hatching of the eti'i'-s of shad had been failures. It was ascertained 

 that the fish came into the rivers at about the same time as the salmon, 

 but that unlike that fish, they did not sj)awn until the warm Summer 

 months. Their eggs are not placed upon gravel, but float in the water. 

 Schools of them will play about the river for days, when, upon some 

 sudden impulse, the milk from the male and the spawn from tlie female 

 will be exuded into the water, at times, it is said, making the Avater 

 cloudy. In from two to four days the eggs hatch, when the young fish 

 immediately swim for the centre of the river, keeping their heads against 

 the current. At last Mr. Seth Green, after much patient investigation 

 and numerous experiments, invented a box, the bottom of which was 

 covered with fine wire netting. On this wire netting the impregnated 

 eggs were placed; a series of these boxes, fastened together by a rope, 

 were allowed to float in the current of the river. To the sides of each 

 box were fastened, at an angle, pieces of board, which, floating in the 

 water, caused the wire bottom of the box to be partially turned against 

 the current. The effect was that the current, entering through the wire 

 netting, kept the eggs in constant motion. All the conditions of nature 

 were satisfied, and the experiment became a success. Mr. Green obtained 

 a patent for his invention, which, as it is largely used, is quite valuable. 

 Within the past four years, under the direction of Fish Commissioners 

 and by aid of small appropriations, more than five hundred million shad 

 have been artificially hatched in these boxes in the rivers of the Eastern 

 States north from Yirginia. The result of the first and second year's 

 hatching in the Hudson and Cojuiecticut is becoming manifest; more 

 fish have been taken this year in those rivers than in any year during 

 the past twenty. So man}^ fish were caught that the fishermen were 

 unable to take care of them, and fresh shad were sold in the New York 

 City markets as low as ten cents a shad. 



These results, from the experiments of enthusiasts, in increasing almost 

 without expense the food supply of the people, are worthy the attention 

 of statesmen. So much attention is now being given to the subject that 

 Congress has passed a law appointing a Commission to investigate our 

 river and coast fisheries, learn the habits of the fish, and report as to 

 what legislation is required to aid in increasing the food supply from 

 this source. 



IMPORTATION OP NEW VARIETIES. 



Your Commissioners have it in contemplation to attempt, at the proper 

 season next year, the importation from the East of white fish from the 

 great lakes, to be placed in Lake Tahoe; black bass, a superior game 

 fish, to be placed in some lake to breed and be distributed; eels, to be 

 put in the Sacramento River; and lobsters, to be deposited in some 

 appropriate place in the bay of San Francisco. AYe have also opened a 

 correspondence with gentlemen in China, with the object of learning 

 what valuable food-fish can be obtained in that country, and the j)i"o- 



