THE RESTRICTED INLAND RANGE OF SHAD DUE TO ARTIFICIAL OBSTRUC- 
TIONS AND ITS EFFECT ON NATURAL REPRODUCTION. 
By CHARLES H. STEVENSON, 
Of the United States Fish Commission. 
There is no species of fish more important to residents of the Atlantic seaboard 
than the shad, and none whose preservation so immediately concerns a larger number 
of persons — 24,768 men being actively engaged in this fishery in 1896. True, the yield 
of codfish is heavier and sells for a greater value, but the fishery for that species is 
confined to one section of the coast, gives employment to less than half as many men, 
and its prosecution requires costly vessels and appliances, necessitating lengthy trips 
from port, with much exposure and loss; whereas, shad occur more or less abun- 
dantly along the entire coast, ascending the rivers as far as they permit, almost to the 
very doors of fishermen and consumers, several hundred miles from the sea, and are 
caught by all forms of apparatus, from the costly pound nets and seines near the coast 
to the roughly constructed bownets and falltraps in the headwaters. Yet, there are 
few species whose geographical range and local abundauce are more easily affected by 
artificial agencies or which require greater attention for their maintenance, and as 
most of the important shad streams border or traverse two or more States and are 
thus subject to more than one jurisdiction, the agencies affecting their range and 
abundance present an appropriate subject for consideration in a gathering of repre 
seutatives from the different States. 
No river on the Atlantic seaboard appears too long for shad to ascend to its head- 
waters, provided they meet with nothing to bar their progress. They ascend the St. 
Johns in Florida a distance approximating 375 miles; the Altamaha, 300 miles; the 
Edisto, 281 miles; the Santee, 272 miles; the Neuse, 300 miles, and the Delaware River 
a distance of 240 miles from the sea. However, these distances do not equal the 
extreme ranges in the early part of the present century. Then shad ascended the 
Savannah to Tallulah Falls, a distance of 384 miles, instead of 209 miles as at present. 
They ran up the Pee Dee to Wilkesboro, a distance of 451 miles, whereas the present 
limit on that river is Grassy Island, 242 miles from the sea, and only one shad was 
reported from that point in 1896. On the James Eiver the former run was 350 miles 
in length, while the present limit is Boshers Dam, 120 miles. The greatest decrease 
exists in Susquehanna River, in which shad formerly ascended to Binghamton, 318 
miles from the mouth and 513 miles by water-course from the sea, whereas at present 
they do not appear to pass beyond Clarks Ferry, 84 miles from the mouth of the river. 
From Table A, on page 270, it appears that in 23 of the principal Atlantic coast 
rivers, aggregating 8,113 miles in length, shad formerly existed throughout 6,052 miles, 
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