856 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



entirely above the surface when suddenly alarmed by moving objects in or 

 above the water. Ordinarily they are in hiding, to escape their legion enemy, 

 the numerous species of fishes which abound along with them — bass, crappie, 

 sunfish, pike, catfish, yellow perch, and many others. They are captured by a 

 small bait or hand net operated from the bank or from a small boat, but in 

 Sampson County the fishermen use a slat basket instead of the net, the latter 

 clumsy mode of capture suggesting the presence of large numbers. In a place 

 at which I had collected five days before, I dipped up 476 within a space of 4 

 yards square — 114 per square yard. At another place I took 741 in 11 dips, at 

 another 350 at 2 dips, and at another place I gathered 1,000 in thirty minutes' 

 time and at the rate of 900 per square rod. With a lo-foot seine I gathered 

 1,250 in 3 hauls. Owing to the thick plant growth and the presence of innu- 

 merable boughs and leaves of trees, and the small size of many of the shrimps, it 

 is obvious that I gathered but a small proportion of what was there. Hundreds 

 of acres of water in many counties are teeming with this unrivaled natural food 

 of fish. It exists by the millions and by the ton, but scattered, of course. 



The fresh-water shrimp abounds in creeks, mill ponds, ponds or lakelets 

 formed by river overflow, and in clay holes or borrow pits along railroad lines 

 where earth was obtained for throwing up railway embankments. In the latter 

 class of locality the shrimp is landlocked and dependent upon rainfall for water 

 supply in holes but 2 to 8 inches deep, unshaded, and subjected to extremes of 

 heat and cold, the thermometer ranging from 10 degrees to approximately 100 

 degrees Fahrenheit. In summer the water at times approximates or even 

 exceeds 100 degrees, and in the severest winters it freezes several inches thick. 

 The overflows from the Roanoke River, which aff^ord as thick, muddy water 

 (from a clay country) as can be imagined in a stream of its size, appear to have 

 no decimating effect upon the engulfed shrimp. While trees grow along the 

 sides of streams and ponds, and largely out in their waters also, their shade 

 appears to contain no elemental saving quality, the productive borrow-pit 

 pools being in railroad rights of way and denuded of all tall growth. 



Instead of hibernating or burrowing during freezing weather, the fresh- 

 water shrimp appears merely to seek greater water depths. Here is another 

 similarity to the salt-water shrimp and prawn, which, in North Carolina at 

 least, pass out to sea when cool weather reigns, seeking the deeper water and 

 remaining in it till springtime. In Northampton County, N. C, I know an 

 angler who annually gathers up quantities of fresh-water shrimp and, in a run- 

 ning, open ditch, holds them through the winter for bait. 



From the foregoing it is practically certain that the species is adapted to 

 broadcast distribution in the temperate zone of the globe, and capable of becom- 

 ing a resource of incalculable value. But while I forecast the possibilities with 



