SPAWNING HABITS OF THE SHAD. 
203 
to render doubtful the collection there of enough spawn to justify the establishment 
of an ordinary hatching station, while the large catch of fish and the natural sur- 
roundings would seem to guarantee such an investment against risk. 
Albemarle production.— ^ On the Albemarle Sound well-conducted examinations dis- 
closed the fact that but one seine afforded a reasonably remunerative and regular supply 
of eggs. This was the Sutton Beach fishery (producing about 30,000 shad per season 
ten years ago), situated just below Salmon Creek. This creek, though it does not 
affect the argument, is unlike any of the others subsequently adverted to, in being 
above tide water and hence discharging a constant current of warmer Avater through 
the seine berth, except when occasionally shifted from its course by high winds. This 
shore yielded perhaps 5,000,000 eggs, a small enough number, but more than all others 
combined. This was the only seine operated in the influence of a creek current. 
In striking contrast with this seine were four others on the east shore of tin* 
sound, between Edenton and Drummond Point, each of which caught 15,000 to 20,000 
shad and produced so few eggs that they were abandoned by the spawn-takers at the 
expiration of the second season. In greater contrast (because situated higher up 
stream) were the four or more seines on the Chowan River, which, though principally 
ale wife fisheries, made a catch of 5,000 to 10,000 shad per annum, and yet Avere so 
unproductive of eggs that they, too, were abandoned by spawn-takers. Equally un- 
productive Avere the three or more seines operated in the headwaters of Batchelor 
Bay by Mr. Nichols and others, as were also the Roanoke seines already referred to 
elsewhere. 
There remains to be mentioned but one other seine in this region, that being 
Scotch Hall, operated near Black Walnut Point, at the confluence of Chowan River 
and Batchelor Bay. This seine produced a fair number of eggs, but probably there 
would have been none, so to speak, but for the fact that southerly and easterly winds 
brought the Roanoke water over to commingle Avitli that of tlie Chowan, thus estab- 
lishing, occasionally and for brief periods, the conditions more constantly maintained 
at Sutton Beach fishery by the agency of the creek current. The. Chowan and Roanoke 
waters are essentially different in character and most probably in temperature. The 
spasmodic production of eggs at Scotch Hall fishery is most readily accounted for on 
the above conjecture. 
Potomac River Production . — When we analyze the sources of production of shad 
eggs on the Potomac, we find, as on the Albemarle Sound, that the least variable and 
largest producing fisheries are coincident with the creek currents, as in the case of the 
Tulip Hill, Port Washington, and Moxley Point seines, situated respectively below 
Broad, Swan, and Piscataway creeks. 
In the case of the great seine at Stony Point AA T e observe the reverse conditions, 
viz : a small and irregular egg supply and the absence of a creek current. The catch 
at this fishery is double that of the other three combined, while its egg product is 
only one-thirtieth (though the discrepancy in egg-production would be slightly less 
Avere it- possible to have this seine landed every day about the sunset or spawning- 
hour). Moreover the eggs obtained here present a very unfavorable characteristic 
(and one unknown at the three previously named shores) in that more than half of 
them, though to all external appearance good, are dead. This feature has proven 
embarrassing to government agents collecting them and to the proprietor whose 
expectations were invariably disappointed when the daily returns were sent him. 
