A'Diericaii Fisheries Sock'ty 117 



some numbers, sjDawning up in Monroe county. Quite a number 

 of fish could be seen worlving back and forward on the surface 

 of the pools, in the act of spawning, and there were quite a large 

 number of young fish that went down tlie river last fall, and 

 weilt down re]uarka))ly late. They didn't go down until nearly 

 December, and it was the mi(klle of December before the last run 

 of young sliad M71s reported to me. Of course the larger jier- 

 centage of those fish are destroyed, there is no question aliout it. 



Mr. F. jST. Clark : This paper by Mr. ^Icelian on shad is verv 

 interesting. Mr. Meelum. I took shad eggs and hatched them on 

 the Delaware river tliirty years ago this sumnu'r — T tliink it 

 is thirty — cillicr tliiiiy or thii'ly-one years. 1 think tlie most 

 interesting thing, and the greatest experiment to b;' tried and 

 worked out with the shad is penning. In 1883, 188-i or 1885, 

 I can't give the year exactly, the United States Fish commission, 

 with the rivers and harljors committee on appropriation, spent 

 probal»ly fifty or one hundred thousand dollars at Havre de 

 Grace in Imilding pens at tlie Battery station, for the purpose of 

 penning shad. I was there one or two years. We made many 

 experiments in that line, and we found that it was utterly im- 

 possible to pen the female shad and get good matured eggs. 

 There was no troul)le ^^-ith the male. The male would go on 

 developing, and we could use it. l)ut tlie females would not. 



You spoke of some ycni laid down in twenty-four hours that 

 would not ripen. They were what we call plucked. It was im- 

 possible then to find shad that would ripen. If her eggs would 

 not come — if she was not ripe enough so tliat they wotilcl come 

 when she would come out of the net, they never would ripen in 

 that pen. I don't know if any of you have ever been there and 

 seen that ])en in its early days, but it was built in as perfect a 

 shape for holding fish as it could l)e, ]n-obably 200 by 300 oi' 

 400 feet, just as natural a ])lace as could lie for shad, excepting 

 that they were confined in that. Tliey were liaule:l even from 

 the net — some of the fish iiauled u]). and not handled; they were 

 hauled up in this apron ai.d lookt'd at; anytliing that looked as 

 though it was about ready to s])awn was taken out, and the bal- 

 ance was put in this pen. without handling them. I want to see 

 the experiment continued to lie tried. In my own o])'nion, I do 



