APRIL 65 



net, and after it has been drawn the bank is 

 literally alive with crayfish, — the small fresh- 

 water crabs, — which go scurrying about. 



THE WORK OF THE " FISH-HAWK " 



Meanwhile a boat with a white-suited 

 oarsman has drawn near. To this man 

 the fishermen are respectfully deferential, 

 though he comes to take from them at 

 nominal price a part of their proceeds. 

 Taking one of the finest of the shad between 

 his hands and holding it back down, he runs 

 his thumb steadily and firmly along its ab- 

 domen, pressing out the eggs or the milt, as 

 the case may be, into one or other of his 

 pails standing in the bow of the boat. Hav- 

 ing gathered this material, he rows to the 

 little white government steamboat, the 

 "Fish-hawk," that is lying not far away. 

 It is the work of this boat and its crew that 

 prevents the extermination of the shad from 

 our eastern rivers. For the way of the shad 

 up the river is beset with seines and its 

 chances of escape are small. Then too it 

 is on its way to spawn, and this tremendous 



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