410 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
no comprehensive remarks on this subject can be ventured, but enough is known, from 
even casual observation, to prove that certain well-marked habits of the shad on the 
Atlantic Coast have undergone noteworthy modification in Pacific waters, and the 
inference is proper that still further changes have occurred as a result of the new 
physical and thermic conditions, food supply, enemies, etc. 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF SHAD ON THE WEST COAST. 
The present distribution of the shad on the Pacific Coast is from Los Angeles 
County, Cal., to Wrangell Island, Alaska. Following the major indentations, the 
known range of this fish now covers about 2,700 miles of coast line. Its distribu- 
tion. considered from the standpoint of commercial importance, is from Monterey Bay 
to Puget Sound. It seems probable that the shad has become scattered along this 
extended coast as a result of the initial plants in Sacramento River. The suggestion 
of the United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, in the report previously 
quoted, that the further extension of the shad’s range to Asia maybe expected, seems 
reasonable in the light of the history of the fish’s movements up -to this time. 
On the California coast the shad regularly ranges as far south as Monterey, but 
the absence of suitable streams south of Monterey Bay makes its occurrence in that 
region probably accidental. 
Several instances of the occurrence of shad as far south as Los Angeles County are 
known. In a “ Report upon the edible fishes of the Pacific Coast, U. S. A.,” by Prof. 
W. N. Lockington, in the report of the California fish commission for 1880, reference 
is made to the capture of shad as far south as Wilmington, Los Angeles County. 
Mr. Arthur (4. Fletcher, of the California fish commission, has made inquiries 
for the writer as to the recent presence of shad on the shores of Los Angeles County, 
and communicates the following notes: Four or five years ago (in 1890 or 1891), Harry 
Wallman, a fisherman, caught a 1-pound shad in a beach seine near East San Pedro; 
the fish sold for $1. In November, 1894, Chris. Hoffman, a fisherman, took in the same 
manner and at the same place two shad at one time and four at another, all 16 or 18 
inches long. On December 3, 1895, a 12-iuch shad was delivered to the cannery of the 
Hannimau Fish Company at San Pedro; it had been taken in a seine by J. Turner 
In a letter to Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Henry King, of Santa Monica, stated that in 1893 he 
caught a shad at Redondo Beach; it weighed about 1 J pounds, and was snagged with 
a line fished off the Redondo wharf. It is probable that other shad have been taken 
in this vicinity, but the fishermen as a rule are not well acquainted with the fish and 
might overlook it. 
On the paranzella fishing-grounds off Drake Bay, north of the Golden Gate, shad 
are occasionally caught by the steamers; in the bay the drag-seine fishermen take 
small numbers at times. 
In the Sacramento River the shad does not ascend as far as the salmon, and is not 
common above Sacrauiento; and in a letter dated November 26, 1895, Mr. Livingston 
Stone states that no shad have appeared in the upper tributaries of the Sacramento, 
owing to the low temperature of the water. 
In September, 1894, a deputy of the California fish commission visited the 
Klamath River to watch the run of salmon, and obtained the following information 
about shad in that stream, which has been communicated by Mr. John P. Babcock, 
