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myriads are destroyed by the agency of man, and tens of thou- 

 sands of myriads in the ova state, we find an undiminished abun- 

 dance year after year, which can only be accounted for by their 

 extraordinary creative ability. They spawn about forty-five 

 thousand. They have a peculiarly sloping head and tapering 

 body, projecting under jaw, sharp, small teeth, forked tail, dusky 

 blue color, with a line of dark round spots on each side, sometimes 

 four and often ten in number, and I have frequently seen them 

 without any. They ascend our rivers from the first of April to 

 the tenth of June, for the purpose of spawning, which they 

 accomplisji in the same manner that bass do, except that the male 

 fails to cover the ova; this necessary operation is performed by 

 the ebbing and flowing tide. The organization of this fish enables 

 it to breathe either salt or fresh water; and, taking advantage of 

 this fact, I have been enabled to breed them in ponds, and from 

 numerous experiments am led to believe, that shad live but a 

 single year; and that when they pass down our rivers, after 

 spawning, they are so weak and emaciated that they fall an easy 

 prey to voracious fish. They grow in a single season to weigh 

 from five to eight pounds; they appear, as well as the herring, to 

 have been created • to form the food of the myriad inhabitants of 

 the ocean. They take, like the herring, (of Avhich they are erro- 

 neously called by fishermen the mother,) the circuit of the sea, 

 commencing in the regions of the north pole, in schools, equaling 

 in extent the whole of Great Britain and France. When they 

 reach the coast of Georgia, they separate into immense squadrons, 

 and as the season advances, run up all the rivers on our coast, 

 followed a little later by the herring. Late writers question the 

 migratory character of these fish, and suppose that they remain 

 throughout the winter in the most profound depths of the ocean, 

 burrowing in the mud. This is bad philosophy, as they are not 

 organized for living in mud, and the structure of their air blad- 

 ders prevents them from sinking in deep water. Their form 

 indicates clearly that they were designed by nature to swim near 

 the surface of the sea, and to be always in motion. I have had 

 herring in my pond, with shad, several hundred at a time, and 

 never saw them at rest. 



