EXPLANATION OF PLAN. This plan represents the exact form and position of the fixtures employed in 1-77, and they were substantially the same in 1876. The left-hand edge of the drawing represents a line 50 or 60 feet below the dam which commands the flowage of Grand Lake. Immediately below the dam lies a broad, deep pool, part of which is shown on the plan. The dam itself is of the sort constructed by log-driving companies to store and control the water of lakes for the purpose of floating logs down the river, and is provided with deep sluice-gates, through which, when open, flows the water, which is never allowed to pour over the tops of the dams. In nearly all cases the gates are so low that fish can easily pass up or down, and this is especially the case with the dam in question. It is not looked upon as any hinderance to the descent or ascent of the salmon, except when the water is very low, as sometimes occurs in early autumn; but even then the situation is not such as to prevent the majority of them passing down into the stream. Great numbers of them collect in the deep pool just before the commencement of the spawning season, and there safely bide their time. From the pool the main current is through the artificial channel denominated the "Main Lead." Here the water is shoal and swift, and the bottom gravelly, and many fish are tempted to stop here and make their ridds. The majority, however, push on and are led by the nets into the inclosure A, from which they rarely find their way back into the main lead, but after a while are led into inclosure B. Here they are caught in dip-nets, counted and placed in C, which is deep and capacious enough for them to lie at ease; or, if the spawning time has actually arrived, they are placed for the night in E or D, and next morning examined and spawned so far as they are ready. The nets are all weighted by chains at the bottom, and by simply lifting them the fish can be driven underneath from one inclosure to another. When taking spawn the fish to be operated on are gathered without handling in front of the spawning-shed, at H. From the deep pound, C, they are drawn up by a seine or sweep-net. The fish from which eggs are taken are placed in F; those unripe in E or D, to be afterward driven into C. The males are divided and part of them placed with each party of females. After being pressed a second time, the fish are dropped out of apertures in the back of the spawning-shed into I, whence they run up to L, where is a deep pool for them to lie in until the spawning operations are at an end, when they are removed in cars to a safe distance in the lake. XV.-THE PROPAGATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF SHAD IN 1877. -THE By JAMES W. MILNER. A.-STATION ON THE SUSQUEHANNA RIVER NEAR HAVRE DE GRACE, MD. Reference has been made in previous reports to the failure to procure a sufficient supply of shad in the southern waters of the United States to warrant the expense of establishing stations, the results having always proved greatly disproportionate to the outlay. In laying out the work for 1877, therefore, it was determined to concentrate effort upon the Susquehanna and Connecticut Rivers, with the object of obtaining a sufficient number of young fish from these two streams to meet the requirements in the way of stocking new waters. Another reason for concentration was the desire to test, during part of the season at least, the efficiency of a radical change planned and adopted by Mr. T. B. Ferguson, Maryland commissioner of fisheries, in the entire theory and practice of the hatching of shad, in dispensing entirely with the use of floating boxes of any kind whatever, such as had been hitherto considered absolutely necessary for successful work. These boxes, as the result of several years' experience, were found to answer an excellent purpose in comparatively narrow rivers, where there was a steady and continued current, but they were inadequate to the requirements in tidal waters. As has been explained in previous reports, the floating boxes are connected in a gang by cords, the foremost one being held to its place by an anchor. During the strong tide-current there is sufficient movement of the eggs, but when the tide is slack they rest in masses upon the bottom of the boxes and in consequence suffer greatly, especially when the water is at a high temperature, unless shaken up by hand. In the event of a storm or freshet the boxes, except in the few sheltered places which are available in the region of the shad fisheries, are in great danger of being upset and the eggs and young fishes thrown out or carried away as has frequently occurred; and under the best of circumstances the exposure of the apparatus and the attendants to the elements, and the great number of boxes required to contain even a million of eggs at one time, are serious obstacles to their use when work is done on a large scale. In most tidal waters, and waters without current, as at the head of Albemarle Sound, these objections are fatal to success. It was therefore with much satisfaction that the experiments of Mr. T. B. Ferguson in the employment of an entirely |