The fish for cultivation in American waters, the fish which nature has given us preeminently as one of its best gifts to man is the shad. Adapted to all our seaboard streams; once numerous in every river that emptied into the ocean, from Florida to Maine; prolific to a remarkable degree, easily manipulated, requiring no aid to procure its support, it fairly cries to man for his assistance and protection. An excellent addition to the table, it is welcome to the epicure, while so cheap has it been within the memory of even young men, that it was not denied to the poorest among us. Of course it has been growing scarce of late; inroads have been made on its vast numbers. The fishermen with their drift nets and seines and stake nets, of which there must be thousands upon thousands of miles in the entire country, have done their best in the way of extermination, and have almost sue ceeded. Some streams have been depopulated, in others fisheries have ceased to be remunerative; the markets are being scantily supplied, and prices have risen enormously. Shad are following in the wake of salmon in consequence of American energy of destruction. A few years more of uncontrolled pursuit and shad would have been as rare as salmon, and selling for a dollar a pound. The want of legal restrictions, the neglect of restoration or even preservation would in a very short time have deprived the community of what is still, in a semi-exhausted condition, a large part of its fish food.

Habits Of Shad

Shad make their appearance along the Atlantic coast of the United States early in the year. The first school usually strikes in at the Florida rivers in

February, and is succeeded by other schools which enter the streams further north, as the season advances and the temperature of the water increases. It was for a long time supposed that immense shoals of herring, shad and other migratory fishes traversed the ocean in certain circuits, sending off divisions at all convenient spots, the main body keeping on its course, and these smaller armies filling and utilizing for spawning purposes the various rivers adapted to their wants, no more being sent to each than would be necessary. These voyages were even thought to extend across the ocean and possibly even around the entire globe, and it was supposed that the shad and herring which visited Europe were a portion of the same vast body which skirted the coast of the United States of America. Investigation has tended to break down this theory, and it is now generally abandoned. It was found that over fishing in certain streams diminished the yield of such streams without affecting others that were better preserved or more neglected. This would not have been the case if the supply came from one central source from which all rivers were equally furnished, and to deplete one stream would only lead to a general diminution. So far from this result being attained, however, the rivers of Florida were as crowded as ever while the fisheries of the Hudson and Connecticut were almost at an end. The converse of this experience was reached when efforts were made to improve the supply of certain streams. The artificial culture of shad in the Connecticut and the Hudson, under the fishery commissions of those States, has improved the yield in those rivers to a marked extent, without having any effect on that of streams further south or north. A few shad may have wandered into the Hudson from the Connecticut, or vice versa, or may possibly have strayed even further, but the benefits of the shad-batching operations were practically confined to the waters in which they were practiced, and in those waters were proportioned to the extent to which such operations were carried.

Experiments made with salmon in Europe clearly established the proposition, as far as these fish were concerned, that they always returned as mature fish, after their sojourn in the ocean, to the rivers in which they were hatched and from which they emigrated when young. They were marked in various ways usually by cuttiug off the adipose second dorsal fin while in the smolt stage, when they were preparing to descend to the sea; and it was found that they invariably returned to their breeding places, except in a few instances, which might safely be attributed to accident. Their residence in the salt water being short, these experiments were easily made, and as the fisheries were mainly in private hands, and under close supervision, the results could be obtained with accuracy. Another discovery was made in the same connection by the deep-sea fishing, to the effect that these same salmon did not roam over distant portions of the ocean, or even descend to great depths, but remained near the mouths of the rivers to which they belonged.

Shad remain much longer in the ocean, requiring three and four years to become mature, although the males probably reappear a year earlier than the females; but there is every reason to believe that the same rule governs their motions that applies to the migrations of the salmon. It may, therefore, be concluded that shad do not roam about the "vasty deep" in immense shoals, making journeys of thousands of miles, and sending off relays to each river whose mouth they pass, but that they remain quietly near the streams where they are bred till the time comes for them to leave the ocean, seek the fresh water and complete their duties of procreation. No migratory tribe of fishes can accomplish the round of its life duties in one element; it may live and grow in the sea, but cannot breed there; while although it must breed and may live in the fresh water, it will not attain its full proportions in that element alone. Instinct, which could hardly teach them how many of their number to direct to any given stream before they had explored it, could and does inform them when the proper time of year has arrived for them to deposit their eggs. The temperature of the water and the heat of the sun are their guides, in exact accordance with which will their appearance in the streams take place, occurring first in the more southern and gradually succeeding in those to the north. It cannot be doubted that a sensible diminution of the entire shad supply of this continent has taken place within the last fifty years, and were this drawn from one body it would be natural to expect that while the rivers first reached by the school would be filled as they originally were, those last in order would be left utterly bare. In such case the school coming from the south would send off their full quota to the streams of Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, until the entire body was exhausted, and those of the New England or middle States were left with no fish whatever. Such, however, is not the fact, and it is only those streams where man takes more than his proper proportion that are being gradually depopulated.