THE RIVER FISHERIES OF MAINE. 687 



A couveuieut quantity of pickle is now poured in, the barrel is headed up, and theu completely 

 tilled with pickle through the buughole. The pickle used is the same in which the fish were 

 struck.* 



No. 1 differ from the mess shad merely in having the backbone in and the tails on. The third 

 grade, No. 2, embraces thin and poor fish, but these, as well as the two higher grades, must be 

 well preserved. An inspector must attend as the fish are packed and see that it is properly done. 

 His brand is placed upon the head of the barrel, and if any purchaser finds the fish of inferior 

 quality or in bad condition he can recover damages of the inspector. 



It takes nowadays from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty Kennebec River 

 shad to make a barrel of mess. Previous to 1820 it took but ninety shad to the barrel. From 

 1820 to 1840 one could rely upon one hundred shad filling a barrel. After that there was a decline 

 in size until one hundred and thirty were required to the barrel, which was the rate for some years 

 previous to 1880. In the latter year, however, there has been an improvement in size, and one 

 hundred and twenty are now sufficient.! The sea shad are much smaller. Of those caught in 

 Caseo Bay a barrel will hold one hundred and seventy-five. One informant estimated the number 

 in a barrel in 1853 at one hundred and thirty or one hundred and forty, showing that these fish as 

 well as the river shad have deteriorated in size. 



The barrels now in use are almost wholly of spruce staves and pine heads, bound with twelve 

 hoops, which are commonly of white ash. The law allows the use of white oak, white ash, pine, 

 chestnut, and poplar for staves, and prior to 1850 pine was generally employed. Both Cadiz and 

 Liverpool salt are in use. One experienced packer prefers to strike shad in Liverpool salt and use 

 Cadiz in the barrel, considering the latter of superior strength, but the former better adapted to 

 striking because finer. 



The price obtained for salt shad varies ordinarily from $9 to $11, but as extremes may be 

 mentioned $6 and $lo..J3 per barrel. The latter price was obtained for some lots at Richmond in 

 1867 or about that time. The high price combines with other circumstances to forbid the consump- 

 tion of many salt shad at home. They are consequently nearly all shipped out of the State. For 

 about twenty-five years previous to 1867 almost the entire catch went into the hands of a single 

 firm in Boston, but since that date a considerable portion is shipped direct to Philadelphia, 

 which market is reputed to ultimately absorb most of those sent to Boston and other points. At 

 present this business is of little importance, but 384 barrels of shad having been packed in Maine 

 in 1880. As an illustration of the decline in recent years may be adduced the statement that at 

 Dresden as late as 1860 to 18C5 there were packed from 200 to 400 barrels yearly, against 75 



barrels in 1880. 



THE ALEWIFE (CLUPEA VERNALIS). 



NATURAL HISTORY. The range of this species is from Florida to Newfoundland. In Maine 

 it has a more gregarious character than any other river fish. It pushes up the rivers in dense 

 bodies, which appear to seek unerringly each their native lakes, and the young descend to sea in 

 solid columns. Before the obstruction of the streams by far the greater part of the alewives 

 deposited their spawn in lakes and ponds'. No stream seems to be too small for them if its 

 waters are derived from a pond, and there can have been hardly an accessible pond in the whole 

 State they did not visit. The inaccessible waters were those rendered so by the interposition of 

 insurmountable falls or too great a distance from the sea. They are known to have ascended the 



* Statement of W. W. Walker of Dresden. In other districts there may be some difference in the details. 

 t Statement of Jolm Browii, \V. W. Walker, and others. 



