OHIO RIVER FISHES. 283 
later (April 20); at Louisville still a little later (April 28 to May 20), 
and in the Kanawha River at Montgomery, W. Va., in the latter part 
of May. 
The Ouachita River, Arkansas, from which shad have been reported, 
has its mouth in the Red River near the confluence of the latter with 
the Mississippi, more than 200 miles below Coahoma, where they were 
seen by Mr. Sowders, and only about 200 miles from the Gulf of 
Mexico. Although it has not been proved that these shad come up 
from the Gulf of Mexico, it may be regarded as certain that they do 
and that they are as truly anadromous as is the Atlantie shad. 
Whether important fisheries for the Ohio shad can be established 
remains to be determined. In the first place, it is not yet known 
whether the fish is commercially abundant. It is not at all improbable 
that its apparent scarcity may be due merely to the fact that the 
methods of fishing in vogue in the Mississippi basin have not been 
such as would prove effective in the capture of shad. Gill nets and 
trap nets are scarcely known, and where seines are used they are usu- 
ally leaded so as to fish the bottom, and are hauled mostly during the 
daytime. Shad might very well be present in abundance and remain 
forever unknown so long as the present fishing methods are continued. 
Many plants of Atlantic shad have been made by the United States 
Fish Commission in the waters of the Mississippi basin—the first in 
1874 and the last in 1893—and although none of the planted shad has 
since been received by the Fish Commission for identification, and the 
capture of none has been fully authenticated, it does not follow by any 
means that none has survived. It is by no means improbable that the 
Atlantic shad may now be abundant in the Gulf and its tributary 
streams, and that a thorough investigation may establish the fact. At 
any rate the vast economic and scientific importance of the matter jus- 
tifies a very careful and exhaustive investigation of the whole matter. 
The spawning time of the shad in the Ohio River is probably not 
earlier than the 10th of June. The numerous examples seen at Louis- 
ville May 16 to 19 were far from ripe and it is doubtful if any of them 
would have spawned much before the middle of June. 
As an article of food the Ohio shad does not yet seem, to have 
appealed to the citizens of the Mississippi Valley. At Louisville they 
sold at a low price, the price received by the fishermen being but 2 
cents a pound, the same that was paid for carp, buffalo, and toothed 
herring. Those who are familiar with the delicious Atlantie shad and 
who know how to prepare it find the Ohio species not at all inferior. 
If the shad should be found to be present in the Mississippi and its 
tributaries in sufficient numbers to justify the establishment of per- 
manent fisheries each spring, there is little doubt but that it would soon 
become quite as highly prized as its near relative in the Atlantic 
coastal streams. 
