Fishing in North Carolina. 119 



There is an old saying that the young shad 

 will continue to annually visit the place or river 

 where it was hatched, but this is not absolutely 

 known to be a fact. If it were true they must 

 be given credit for more sense than is possessed 

 by man. It is, however, likely that some of 

 them may return to the same river. 



The shad is also the leading fish in North 

 Carolina for market purposes ; the annual value 

 of the catch being as large as the two next most 

 important species combined. 



The number caught in 1896 at the shad fisli- 

 eries was approximately twenty-one millions. 

 This does not include those taken while ascend- 

 ing the rivers, of which no record is available. 



The average number of eggs is from 25,000 

 to 30,000, although as many as 100,000 have 

 been taken from a large fish. 



The sturgeon was formerly more abundant 

 than at present, and this is somewhat strange 

 when we consider that mature sturgeon may 

 yield from 1,000,000 to 2,500,000 eggs. 



Individually considered, it is by far the most 

 valuable fish inhabiting the waters of our State. 



