614 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



relative temperature of the water. The shad ascend to the very sources of the Saint John's, there 

 being no obstructions, and spawn in Lake Monroe, distant several hundred miles from the 

 Atlantic. 



METHODS EMPLOYED IN THE SHAD FISHERY. In this river the shad is the only fresh-water 

 species which is the object of organized fisheries. The principal salt-water fisheries are discussed 

 by Mr. R. E. Earll in his account of the salt-water fisheries of the Florida coast. From Palatka 

 down the shad fisheries are prosecuted entirely with gill-nets. On Lake Monroe are three small 

 hand-seines. 



The shad caught in the Saint John's are either sold fresh to supply local demand, or are packed 

 in ice and sent to Northern markets. Savannah is the principal point to which shipmenis are 

 made. There the fish are rehaudled and reiced, and then sent by steamer and rail to the interior 

 towns of the South Atlantic States or to the Northern cities. Probably three-fourths of the entire 

 catch is so distributed. No definite number of shad makes a package, which usually consists of a 

 rice or other convenient barrel or box, the largest being selected when possible, in order to save 

 freight. 



ME. EARLL'S ACCOUNT OF THE FISHERY. Mr. Earll gives the following historical data in re- 

 gard to the fisheries of the Saint John's : 



"Shad were first caught at Mayport by Charles Waterhouse, of Connecticut, in 1858. He 

 had previously fished in the Savannah, but abandoned it on account of poor results. At Jackson- 

 ville gill-nets were first used In the shad fisheries in 1868. At Palatka, C. B. Smith, of Connect- 

 icut, was the first to establish a shad fishery. He began the work in 1872, and it was not until 

 1877 that a second fishery was started. In the year 1873, 94,000 shad were caught at New Berlin 

 with thirty nets (an average of 3,133 to the net). From 1865 to 1875 the average catch was 25,000 

 to the net. The year 1876 was the most prolific season of all, when each net averaged a catch of 

 5,000. In 1875, at Palatka, one net caught 11,000 shad, and in the same year it is said six nets 

 took 55,000." 



Dr. Charles Kock, in a letter from Jacksonville dated January, 1874, says: "From the bar at 

 the mouth of the Saint John's Eiver up to Palatka seventy-five to eighty nets are fished during 

 the shad season. These nets are about 200 yards long and 10 feet deep (the mesh 1 inches square), 

 and are set in from 10 to 12 feet of water. In 1874 the product of the shad fisheries amounted to 

 250,000 shipped or consumed. The average price at Jacksonville, season of 1872-'73, was 15 cents 

 apiece." 



MR. GOODE'S ACCOUNT OF THE FISHERY. The following interesting description of the shad 

 fisheries of the Saint John's River, from the pen of Mr. G. Brown Goode, is inserted entire: 



"The shad is next to the mullet the most important fish of East Florida, The Saint John's 

 seems to mark its southern limit, of distribution, though within the past few years it has been 

 acclimated by the efforts of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries in trans-Mississippi and 

 several other waters emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. It has been claimed by many persons that 

 the shad has not inhabited the Saint John's River until within a few years past. This has been 

 clearly shown to be a mistake, arising from the fact that during the war no fishing was carried on, 

 and that before the war local enterprise was not sufficient to develop the industry. Col. H. S. 

 Sammis, of Arlington, and other early settlers remember the capture of shad in the Saint John's 

 as early as the year 1840. Mr. Waterhouse had one or two nets at Mayport about 1861, and is said 

 to have met with good success. About 1865 and 1866 Mr. Remps and others began fishing, and 

 since 1870 the fisheries have been constantly on the increase. There are shad also in the Saint 

 Mary's River, though no effort is made to capture them. The Saint John's River shad are not so 



