162 SALMONIDES. 



tysix barrels of shad, at his locahty, at one haul. 

 Some idea may be formed, from these statements, 

 of the incredible number which were annually ta- 

 ken in the Connecticut in former times. All the 

 smaller rivers have their quota, in the fishing sea- 

 son. 



The Merrimac, Medford, Connecticut, Nepon- 

 set, he, are amongst the principal rivers in Mas- 

 sachusetts, in which this fish was taken in such 

 quantities as to make the fishery a decidedly pecu- 

 niary object. 



Alewife, — Clupea Vernalis. This fish seems 

 to hold a place between the shad and herring, 

 having the general characteristics of both. Its 

 habits bear a striking similarity to those two fish- 

 es, inasmuch as it ascends rivers to deposit its 

 spawn, and retires again to the ocean. 



Although caught in vast abundance at many 

 places in the Commonwealth, Taunton river has 

 been the most distinguished for the alewife fishery. 

 Judge Davis informs us, in an obliging note, that 

 the ''alewife," or, as our laws very carefully ex- 

 press it — ^' fish called the aJeivife,^^ is doubtless 

 of the genus clupea. 



In the list of New England fishes, in the third 

 volume of Dr Belknap's History of New Hamp- 

 shire, it is denominated clupea serrata. In the 



