39° 



The National Geographic Magazine 



more thoroughly stocked than any other 

 state. So successful has been the work 

 of acclimatization in Colorado that the 

 government now draws on that state for 

 most of its supply of brook-trout eggs, 

 which are obtained chiefly from wild fish 

 in mountain streams and lakes ; and it 

 is in accord with the eternal fitness of 

 things that the progeny of Colorado 

 brook trout should be used for replenish- 

 ing the very eastern waters from which 

 the original stock was taken for introduc- 

 tion into Colorado. 



It is generally conceded that the Yel- 

 lowstone National Park afifords some of 

 the very best trout fishing to be had any- 

 where in the world. The thousands of 

 anglers who have dropped their lines in 

 the limpid waters of that wonderland 

 and the thousands and millions who are 

 yet to enjoy the delights of fly-fishing and 

 trolling amid those most inspiring scenes 

 have been and will be indebted to the 

 paternal solicitude of the federal govern- 

 ment, which has not only stocked lakes 

 and streams of the park which had from 

 time immemorial been entirely destitute 

 of fish life, but each season, in a quiet but 

 effective way, takes steps to maintain and 

 increase the supply of trouts. Further- 

 more, a commendable policy has been 

 adopted and adhered to by which differ- 

 ent kinds of trouts are kept in separate 

 waters, so that the park gives opportunity 

 for the most varied and at the same time 

 the most specialized trout fishing. Thus, 

 in one river basin the black-spotted trout 

 ^exists to the exclusion of other species, 

 in another the rainbow, in another the 

 brook, in another the lake, and in others 

 several European trouts. 



SHAD ON PACIFIC COAST 



_ The colonizing of the shad on the Pa- 

 cific coast was one of the greatest achieve- 

 ments in fish acclimatization. Aside from 

 the important economic results, the ex- 

 periment was noteworthy because of cer- 

 tain changes that have occurred in the 

 habits of the species, and because the 

 feat of transporting shad fry across the 

 continent at that early day was justly re- 



garded as remarkable, and had a marked 

 influence on the development of fish 

 transportation, which "has now attained 

 such perfection. With the experiment 

 were associated two of the pioneer fish 

 culturists of America, whose names and 

 fame are known the world over — Seth 

 Green and Livingston Stone. 



It was in 1871 that the California Fish 

 Commission made arrangements with 

 Seth Green to take to California a lot of 

 young shad from the Hudson River. He 

 started with 12,000 newly hatched fish 

 in four 8-gallon milk cans, and by inde- 

 fatigable efforts succeeded in carrying 

 his delicate wards to the Sacramento 

 River and planting 10,000 of them at a 

 point 275 miles above Sacramento. In 

 1873 Mr Livingston Stone, of the U. S. 

 Fish Commission, carried to the Sacra- 

 mento a second lot of shad, 35,000 in 

 number, also from the Hudson River. 

 In 1876, 1877, 1878, and 1880 further 

 plants, aggregating 574,000, were made 

 in the same river. In 1885 and 1886 de- 

 posits aggregating 910,000 were made in 

 the Columbia River. No shad fry were 

 introduced into the Sacramento after 

 1880 or into the Columbia after 1886. 



That the shad found the waters of the 

 Pacific states entirely congenial was 

 quickly demonstrated. In April, 1873, 

 a shad i year 9 months and 20 days old 

 and weighing 3 pounds was caught in 

 the harlior of San Francisco, and the 

 lucky fisherman was paid a reward of $50 

 offered by the California commissioners 

 for the first shad. In a short time many 

 more were taken in the vicinity of San 

 Francisco ; by 1879 they had become 

 numerous; by 1883 the supply in some 

 places was reported as almost unlimited, 

 and a few years later the shad were re- 

 garded as one of the most abundant food 

 fishes of California, and the price to 

 fishermen and consumers was less than 

 in any other state. 



Shad were first taken in the Columbia 

 in 1876 or 1877, so it is evident that an 

 offshoot from the California colony soon 

 migrated northward and had already es- ' 

 tablished itself when the new emigrants 



