3O4 SEVENTH REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



after their departure from the streams nothing is known of their progress, but it is 

 believed that they reach maturity in four years. We have no means of learning the 

 age of the immature fish seen in great schools off shore, and thus far the rate of 

 growth is unsettled. 



The Branch Alewife, though full of small bones, is a very valuable food fish and 

 is consumed in the fresh condition as well as dry salted, pickled and smoked. The 

 fry can be reared in ponds by placing adults in the waters to be stocked a little 

 before their spawning season ; and they furnish excellent food for bass, rockfish, 

 trout, salmon and other choice fishes. The proper utilization of the immense over- 

 supply of these fish in Lake Ontario has become a serious economic problem. 



Alewives are caught in seines, gillnets, traps and pounds, and they are often taken 

 by anglers with artificial flies. 



GLUT HERRING MALE. 



45. Glut Herring (Pomolobus cyanonoton Storer). 



Pomolobus astivalis GOODE & BEAN, Bull. Essex Inst., 24, 1879 ; JORDAN & EVERMANN, 



Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus., I, 246, 1896. 

 Clupea astivalis JORDAN & GILBERT, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus., 267, 1883. 



Mitchill's name, cestivalis, cannot be applied with any certainty to the " Glut 

 Herring ; " it appears to be a synonym of mcdiocris and mattowaca of the same 

 author. Its relation to mattowaca was long since pointed out by Dr. Gill. The 

 description herewith appended appears to make this conclusion inevitable. 

 (Mitchill, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. p. 456, pi. 5, fig. 6, 1814.) 



Summer Herring of New York. (Clupea (Estivalis.} Has a row of spots to the 

 number of seven or eight, extending in the direction of the lateral line. Tail 

 forked. Belly serrate ; and, in most respects, resembling the C. lialec, herein already 

 described. Rays: Br. 6 ; P. 15; V. 9 ; D. 16; A. 19; C. 19. 



The figure shows a row of eight spots on the side extending as far back as the 



