406 



AMERICAN FISHES. 



herring, or are used for manure. In the Chesapeake region they are not 

 highly esteemed, although great quantities are sold by hawkers, especially 

 in the cities, where people are not well informed, under the name of 

 " Shad." At the beginning of the season hundreds of men may be seen 

 going about the city of Washington with strings of these fish, which they 

 cry for Shad, and which with great insolence they press upon such would- 

 be purchasers as are inclined to question their genuineness. In the pound- 

 nets of the Chesapeake in the beginning of the season they are caught in 

 immense numbers, and are shipped to the markets with the true Shad until 

 their price falls below three cents apiece, after which they are sold with 

 the Herring, one counting as two Herrings. 



THE TARPUM. 



In our waters the most important member of this family is the Tarpum, 

 Megalops thrissoides , an immense herring-like fish, which occurs in the 

 Western Atlantic and in the Gulf of Mexico, ranging north to Cape Cod 

 and south at least to Northern Brazil. It is somewhat abundant in the 

 West Indies, and stragglers have been taken as far to the eastward as the 

 Bermudas. This species attains the length of five or six feet, and is 

 covered with enormous circular scales of one inch to two inches and a 

 half in diameter, the exposed portions of which are covered with a silvery 

 epidermis. The fish, when alive, presents a very brilliant metallic ap- 

 pearance, and the scales are much prized by curiosity hunters and for 

 fancy work in the Florida curiosity shops. They are a staple article of 

 trade, selling for from ten to twenty-five cents each, the price paid to the 

 fishermen being about fifty cents per dozen. 



The sailors' name for this fish, by which same name it is also known at 

 Key West, Bermuda, Brunswick, Georgia and elsewhere, is "Tarpum" or 

 " Tarpon." In Georgia and Florida it is commonly called the "Jew-fish." 



