SHAD IN TOE ALABAMA RIVER. 595 



Alabama River and from >c\cral tributaries of the Missixsippi prior to any steps towards the arti- 

 ficial propagation of Shad in these waters In the United States Fish Commission. It is, however, 

 probable that many of tin- so called "White" Shad were but largo specimens of the "Golden" 

 Shad of the Mississippi Basin. Unquestionably, however, Professor Baird was referring to the 

 capture of a genuine ('lu/xii napidiwtima in the waters tributary to the Gulf of Mexico when he wrote: 1 

 "I have already refened to the discovery of Shad in the Alabama River, whether the result of 

 Dr. Daniel's experiments already detailed or not; and I am assured by reliable testimony that 

 they an- found at the present time in other streams of Alabama. Of this I am well satisfied, 

 having actually received a specimen from Mr. W. Peun Yonge, of Springville, Alabama, taken at 

 Elba, Alabama, and preserved in alcohol, and distinguishable in not the slightest particular from 

 the Shad of the eastern coast. I have also the assurance of Dr. Lawrence of their capture at the 

 Hot Springs of the Ouachita; of Dr. Middleton Goldsmith, at the Fulls of the Ohio, near Louis- 

 ville; and of Dr. Turner, in the Wabash River of Indiana and Illinois, and in the Neosho River of 

 Kansas.'' 



If the occasional presence of individuals of this species in the waters tributary to the Gulf of 

 Mexico be admitted, it seems unaccountable that, since no fisheries have there been established for 

 its ca.pture, that the natural increase should not have been such as to cause at least as abundant 

 a run into the rivers emptying into the Gulf as into those on the Atlantic coast. 



If, moreover, assuming that this species has been present in these waters in sufficient numbers 

 for effective reproduction, natural causes have not combined to establish a run of this fish in the 

 tributaries of the Gulf, it can scarcely be hoped that any mea-ures of artificial reproduction would, 

 if re.-orted to, accomplish the desired result. Nor does existing proof appear sufficiently positive, 

 as yet, to establish more than the occasional occurrence of isolated specimens in these waters 

 under conditions simply natural. It is probable that where true Shad have been found in the 

 tributaries of the Gulf of Mexico explanation may thus be made: Occasional individuals have 

 strayed beyond their natural geographical range, around the Florida peninsula, and, once in the 

 Gulf, they have entered the rivers under the impulse of reproduction, but never in sufficient quan- 

 tities to maintain themselves. 



In January, 1879, by direction of Prof. G. B. Goode, the writer was requested to proceed 

 to the Alabama River to investigate the question of the natural occurrence that White Shad in. 

 this river. The report then made gives probably all the facts on this subject that have yet been 

 obtained. They are as follows: 



"There is no doubt that ' White Shad,' to the number of two or three thousand, were taken in 

 the Alabama River and its principal tributary, the Coosa, in the seasons of 1878 and 1879, and of 

 inferior size and in smaller numbers in the season of 1877. Whether these runs of Shad were 

 the result entirely of the government 'plants,' beginning in 1875, or were due in part to previous 

 plants made by individual enterprise, are the questions to the solution of which I have directed 

 my investigation. I have not sought to determine the question whether the 'White Shad,' Cltipea 

 snpiilifxii/Ki. is indigenous to the Alabama River. This has been stated again and again. Judge 

 1'lielan, in a letter to the 'Montgomery Advertiser' of April 11, 1878, claims to have eaten 'White 

 Shad' at Ceutreville, Alabama, not later than 1848. They were taken in traps at the Falls of the 

 Cahaba, and were pronounced 'White Shad' by Mr. Samuel Jamison, an old North Carolina fish- 

 erinan. Judge Phelan further states that some claimed that they were only Hickory Shad. 



"No amount of such evidence can ever settle this question. There is always the possibility 



'Report United States Fiah Commission, part ii, p. 55. 



