154 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



rect under standing of which is quite important. Formerly the shad 

 fisheries of these waters extended as far up as Bean Shoals, on the 

 Upper Pee Dee, a distance of 382 miles from the ocean. There was no 

 concentration at any particular point, and the local demand that existed 

 in any section did not warrant the prosecution of the fisheries so vigor- 

 ously as to cut off the run of shad at points above. About 1846 the 

 use of dams for catching shad was introduced in this river, and during 

 the first few years following the adoption of this form of apparatus 

 large catches were made. It is reported that 17,000 shad were taken 

 at one dam during the season immediately following its construc- 

 tion, and it is probable tbat prior to 18(50 the catch in that portion 

 of the Pee Dee located above the North Carolina line numbered over 

 100,000 annually. The multiplication of dams resulted in shutting off 

 the fish from the upper reaches of the river, where the best spawning- 

 grounds are located, and the run so decreased that in 1896, as already 

 shown, only 16 shad were taken in that section. 



A no less important change has occurred in the lower half of the 

 river. The profits derived from shipping fish to northern markets have 

 resulted in a concentration of the fisheries at the point nearest the 

 mouth of the river where the most convenient shipping facilities exist. 

 This not only secures the shad much earlier than if the fisheries were 

 prosecuted at a distance from the mouth, but it affords an unobstructed 

 passage from the ocean, the run not being cut off by other fisheries. 

 Of the 97,685 shad taken in Winyah Bay and tributaries in 1896, 82,500, 

 or 85 per cent, were caught withiu 30 miles of the ocean, practically 

 none of which had spawned. Of the remaining 15,185 taken at a greater 

 distance from the ocean, the percentage that had spawned is, indeed, 

 very small. This has so reduced natural reproduction as to make it 

 almost an insiguificant factor in keeping up the supply, and renders 

 artificial propagation essential to the prosperity of the fisheries. 



The inquiry on the Pee Dee was begun at Salisbury, N. C, the writer 

 traveling the banks of the river to tbe ocean. Many of the fisher- 

 men living between Salisbury and the Narrows were strongly of the 

 opinion that a wire net was stretched across the river near Grassy 

 Island, so as to prevent the further ascent of shad. The fishermen of 

 Grassy Island were no less emphatic in their assertion as to the exist- 

 ence of the wire net, but its alleged location was near Cheraw. At 

 Cheraw and for many miles below that city statements as to the wire 

 net were heard, but the location was fixed near the mouth of the river. 

 When that point was reached it was found that the much-talked of 

 obstruction had no existence except in the imagination of the fishermen. 

 Although the wire net does not exist, yet the stream is so narrow that 

 it is almost completely obstructed by an amount of twine which would 

 have little appreciable effect in retarding the run of shad up the broad 

 tributaries of the Chesapeake or up the Delaware. 



