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would find suitable food, and in time go to the ocean and return to prop- 

 agate their species. As the shad is very prolific, each full grown female 

 yielding from tiftj^ to eighty thousand eggs, and as the flesh is esteemed 

 to be nutritious and valuable food, it was deemed proper to make the 

 first experiment of importing new varieties with the 3'oung of this fish. 

 The eggs of the shad are hatched in from two to lour days after they 

 are sjjawned, therelbre, if there were no other reason, time alone would 

 prevent the importation of the eggs. 



Mr. Green felt so much doubt as to the possibility of transporting the 

 young fish for so great a distance that he determined to superintend the 

 experiment in person. He left Eochester, New York, with an assistant, 

 on the twentieth of June, with fifteen thousand of the young fish just 

 hatched, contained in eight tin cans holding about twelve gallons of 

 water each. The water had to be changed at every convenient oppor- 

 tunity, and as on a part of the journey the weather was quite warm, 

 constant attention had to be given to prevent the water in the cans from 

 reaching a higher temperature than eighty degrees. At Chicago he lost 

 a few fish from a film of oil from the machinery of the waterworks 

 with which the water attempted to be used was covered. At Omaha 

 the river water killed a few; the cause of this he had not time to inves- 

 tigate. The water of Bear Eiver (discharging into Salt Lake) and the 

 waters of the Humboldt and Truckee Eivers were foitnd to agree with 

 them and containing j^lenty of food. Mr. Green arrived on the twenty- 

 seventh of June. As it was advisable to put the young fish in the river 

 at as high a point as was practicable, for the reason that the instinct of 

 the shad is, like that of the salmon, to return to spawn at the same place 

 where it was hatched, they were the same day transferred to the cars 

 of the California and Oregon Eailroad and taken to the Sacramento 

 River at Tehama. Here the temperature of the water was found to be 

 sixty degrees of Fahrenheit. Upon dipping up the river water in a 

 glass and pouring a lot of the j'oung fish into it, they were found to be 

 lively and the water to contain large quantities of some minute substance 

 on which they feed. All the conditions being favorable, they were 

 turned loose in their new home. It is expected they will remain in this 

 river until about January, by which time they will be three or four 

 inches long; they will then go to the ocean, to return the next year 

 weighing from a pound to a pound and a half, ready to commence the 

 increase of their kind. Thus far the experiment has been a success. 

 The water of the river is adapted to them; it contains the proper kind 

 of food for their young, and the waters of our coast are filled with the 

 sand flea, a small species of the shrimp, on which the fish feeds after 

 reaching the salt water. The only thing to be feared is that there may 

 be in the ocean some kind of fish which may so completely exterminate 

 them that none will be left to come back and spawn. If after one or 

 two years even one shad is taken in the river, the result will be satis- 

 factory, as it will demonstrate the fact that all the conditions are favor- 

 able to their successful propagation in the waters of our rivers; we could 

 then at trifling expense fill our waters with this valuable fish. When 

 first hatched, and in a condition proper to be transported, one freight 

 car would bring over two million of them. If, after two years, none 

 should be taken, it would not then be well to abandon the experiment. 



The English, year after year, shipped impregnated salmon eggs to 

 Australia; the eggs hatched, and the young fish in due time went to the 

 ocean; but for years none were found to return. Some fish — supposed to 

 be the bonita — destroyed them all. At last, after repeated experiments. 



