ECONOMIC VALUE OF THE ALEWIVE. 593 



"The cause [of the sadden death of vast numbers of fish] is the explosion of dynamite. Fish- 

 ermen deposit crabs and other bait to attract particular species of fish, and wheu they [the tishj 

 are supposed to be collected, they [the fishermen] drop a cartridge, charged with dynamite, to 

 which is attached a fuse, and the explosion of which will kill every lisli within a radius of sixty to 

 eighty feet, and shock those at a greater distance, which, though they do not immediately rise to 

 the .surface, in their gasping, weakened condition, take into their gills the sand set free by the 

 explosion, which ultimately produces death. By this means thousands of tisli, not large, enough 

 for profitable sale or use, are destroyed; and, if the practice be continued, it will neutralize all 

 efforts of our Fish Commission to stock our lakes and rivers. The quantity of black bass and 

 other choice fish of Lake Erie and Niagara lliver daily exposed for sale in the fish markets has 

 been and is suspicious, and led me to make diligent inquiry as to their mode of wholesale capture 

 and destruction." 



The second extract reads thus : 



"Although 'Game Constable' Swartz succeeded in cleaning all the nets out of irondiquoit Bay 

 lie has continued to observe that fish were brought from that locality and sold in larger quantities 

 than could be taken in a legitimate manner. At an early hour this morning he set out for the Sea 

 Breeze, arriving there about three o'clock. Nol.ii.idy was seen fishing; but all along the shore of 

 the sand bar, about two hundred yards east of the Sea Breeze House, were found quantities of 

 dead fish of all kinds, in some places piled three or four deep, and covering a considerable space 

 of ground. These fish, consisting chiefly of bass, perch, bull heads, aud sun-fish, were all small. 

 On cutting open and examining a number of them, their air-bladders were found to have burst, as is 

 always the case when fish are killed by means of uitro-glycerine cartridges exploded in the water. 

 The conclusion is, therefore, irresistible that the fish were killed in this way. When they come 

 to the surface they are all scooped up and taken ashore, where the big ones are sorted out, and 

 the little ones left on the sand. The deadly explosive kills every living thing, old and youug, 

 within reach of it.'' 



CAPTURE. Specimens have been dredged, by Prof. B. G. Wilder, in Cayuga Lake. Vast 

 numbers, too, are taken about the foot of Lake Ontario in pounds, traps, and seines. Small 

 numbers are caught in gill-nets, even in the cisco nets, which are set in very deep water. Mr. 

 E. Tyler writes that at Henderson, New York, Alewives take a fly quite readily. Mr. Fred. 

 Mather writes that he has heard of their having been taken with a fly at and above Quebec 

 on the Saint Lawrence. Mr. George Burn, of Montreal, states that he has caught Alewives with 

 artificial flies at that place. 



Inquiries have been made as to the methods of utilizing Alewives as the basis of fertilizers, 

 but we do not know that anything has yet been attempted in that direction. Mr. W. Ains- 

 worth writes under date of August 13, 187S, as follows: "They furnish excellent food for salmon, 

 trout, pike, pickerel, and black bass. They have increased the quantity, as well as improved 

 the quality of these fish.'' 



Mr. E. Tyler wrote on July 1'T, 1.S7S : "So far I consider them a blessing. They supply 

 all our edible fishes with an abundance of food, so that the young fry of bass, trout, pike, 

 pickerel, and muskellunge are not destroyed as formerly, but are allowed to mature, and to-day 

 all the above fishes are more plentiful than for many years past." 



There can be no doubt that the Alewife would prove useful as food and bait for other 

 fishes. The annoyance which it causes by filling the seines aud pounds will, undoubtedly, 

 be offset by its usefulness in the fisheries of the future. 

 38 F 



