xsiv SBAD FIUHEKY COMMISSION 



?!iany of them weighing as much as 9 lbs.. There ean be no doubt that these are the 

 schools which are found later up the St. John river and its tributaries. They ascend 

 for a considerable distance, not only ascending the Kennebecasis, etc.. but proceeding 

 almost to the Grand Falls, as we have reliable information that in a recent season 

 250 shad were caught in one night below the canon of the Grand Falls in May or 

 June. Some are still taken by means of nets, fifty rods long, 4| or 4§ inch mesh, such 

 nets securing several hundreds each season below the lower basin. Xets set at the 

 mouth of Salmon river a little lower down also get shad. Similar schools go up the 

 Petitcodiac river, but more especially the Shubenacadie and Stewiaeke rivers. The 

 .innapolis and Xictanx rivers are also resorted to by these spawning fish. After 

 spawning in fresh water these shad return to the sea, and on their way down are 

 knovai as " come-backs " or " spent " shad. They come down very rapidly according 

 to the evidence of fishermen. When the come-backs descend, as Mr. if. Stackhouse, 

 Carleton, stated, "there is a big run all at once; they rush past." These descending 

 schools are noted especially in St. John Harbour, l)ut in this condition they are poor, 

 emaciated and practically unfit for food. Indeed, as Mr. Andrew Harned. Carleton. 

 said, " Spent come-backs are not fit to eat; they are sick, soft and spongy and unfit 

 ?;or food. They fall to pieces, yet people will eat them because they are large, and 

 they will buy them."' " As to come-backs," said Mr. Robert Evans, of Lorneville, 

 ■ they go out into the deep water and very few are caught, just a few in the salmon 

 nets, by the Lorneville fishermen." 



Another Lorneville fisherman, Mr. J. Galbraith, confirmed this, saying, "An 

 odd come-back or poor shad we take, and of large size; we also get racer salmon. 

 The spring shad of St. John river have nothing to do with our fall shad here." Mr. 

 James MePhee, Lorneville, stated that "poor shad come-backs are taken, not more 

 than three or four in a year. They are taken by salmon nets four, eight or ten miles 

 out." As to the condition of these fish, the statements just quoted are confirmed by 

 !Mr. James Peterson, a principal fish merchant in St. John, who said. " I would not 

 iiandle or buy spawning shad, as they are not fit to eat." Further, Mr. Geo. Leaman, 

 Truro, said: — 



These big shad, 9 potmds weight are mother shad, and inside are of a bluish 

 cast, not nice white flesh and fat like the shad caught in the bay. I handled them 

 last spring and previously, a barrel now and then, while other dealers here handled 

 three or four barrels from Stewiaeke. Shortly after the gaspereau the last run of 

 these shad came in. They are both sexes but the males are fewer. I distinguish them 

 externally. I have weighed the spawn shad and found three pounds in a nine pound 

 shad, in others I found two or two and a half pounds and so on. The ova are well 

 developed like the smallest shot. In Xew York, the shad are three to five weeks ahead 

 of here. Eoe shad sell well, but they are like calving cattle, unhealthy. There should 

 be a law prohibiting them. The bay shad are fat, plump and excellent. 



The spring shad in the Stewiaeke river, as ifr. E. H. McGregor said, are in a 

 ■-•ipe spawning condition : — 



This river was, 15 or 16 years ago, just full of shad. They were full of spawn, the 

 spawning being May 10 to 20. 



The inferiority of the river shad for food purposes was jxiinted out over fifty 

 J ears ago by Dr. !Moses H. Perley, who said: — 



