xxii SHAD FISHERY COMillSSIOX 



wintered in the south and started northward in a vast school at the beginning of the 

 year, advancing along the coast like an army, sending a detachment up each succes- 

 sive stream, this division by a singular method of selection consisting of the fish 

 that were bred in those respective streams, the last portion of the great school entering 

 the Gulf of St. tawrence. 



But naturalists now recognize a second kind of seasonal movement termed 

 ' bathic migration,' by which uniformity of temperature is secured far more rapidly, 

 than by moving towards or from the Equator. And the present theory is that the 

 young shad hatched in any particular river remain within a moderate distance ofi 

 the mouth of that stream until the temperature of the water is suitable for their re- 

 entrance. Their appearance first in the extreme southern river of the coast, the St. 

 John's, Florida, and at later dates successively in the more northern rivers seems to 

 confirm this view. 



"While the chief result accomplished by the migration of shad into the river is the 

 reproduction of the species, yet it appears that their movements are more immediately 

 governed by the comparative temperature of the waters than by the approaching ripe- 

 ness of the eggs. 



It is clear that the various rivers have their own schools of shad, for in the 

 Petitcodiac river shad occur from May 1st to June 25th, whereas on the opposite 

 arm of the Bay of Fundy in Minas basin schools of spawning shad appear about the 

 same time, viz., the last of April. On the Shubenacadie river they even appear 

 earlier, viz., April 17th to May 10th, and have been reported up the river at Ehnsdale 

 on May 1st, though it is claimed they do not spawn until June. On the Avon ex- 

 perienced fishermen claim that the earliest date when the shad appear is three weeks 

 later than at St. John river. Again the end of May is stated to be the earliest at 

 !Nictaux river, an important branch of the Annapolis river. At Bridgetown, lower 

 down on the same waters (Annapolis river) fishing is chiefly done in May, though 

 evidence at Annapolis Royal indicated that shad spawn in April, and schools in that 

 case must enter the river earlier than May. Further down the Bay of Fundy, at the 

 head of St. Marys bay, they appeared formerly early in May. As one important 

 witness stated: — 



Early in the season, in May, there were plenty of spawning shad, many very large_ 

 fish being taken in brush weirs. The size of shad varied, and big fish were taken in 

 weirs, but 9-inch shad occurred in weirs and traps and even in gill nets. These small 

 fish were thrown away, being no good for market. Three kinds of gear adopted: gill 

 nets which drift at night, and took great numbers of fish, brush weirs in which many 

 early or spring shad have been taken, and seines or deep water traps, really a seine 

 set on stakes fixed in the mud, and often 25 feet long (stakes). The pot or bunt may 

 be 40 feet long and the wings each 120 feet long, while the mesh is small. The food 

 of shad is small insects and eel-grass. They feed in deep water when on the mud. 

 They enter St. Marys bay from the open sea and migrate to the very head of the 

 bay. 



As the area covered by the Commission did not extend beyond the Strait of 



Canso, evidence was not taken at any points further north; but in the testimony of 

 t-ertain witnesses interesting references occur to runs of shad ofF the New Bruns- 

 wick and eastern Nova Scotia shores. Thus at Canso catches of Shad are at times 

 made. 



Mr. Clem Whitman, of the firm of A. N. Whitman & Sons, fish merchants, Canso, 

 said : — 



Shad were not regular, and were of small importance in the local fisheries. 

 Eighteen hundred pounds were caught in 1905 in the haddock nets in May. They 



