170 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



Let it not be inferred from this that disrespect is held toward the 

 great neAv English dictionar3^ Even the very best are liable to err, 

 and the dictionarj'^ is not exempt from the liability, although it does 

 rank among the "very best'" and most useful of works; it may be 

 added, too, that an American book to be noticed later on — Smith's 

 Natural History of the Fishes of Massachusetts — ma}" have had some 

 share, indirectly, in misleading the learned Englishmen. Smith says 

 (p. 16J:): "It has been suggested that alewife is derived from the 

 Indian word aloof- — signifying a bon}^ fish."" 



Naturally, the Indians had names for all fishes of economical value, 

 and even for others. A few only, however, were adopted bv the new 

 colonists, and those only in forms considerabl}' different from the orig- 

 inals. Such are, besides menhaden, scup, chogset, tautog, and sque- 

 teague, still more or less used along the Atlantic coast, namaycush, 

 masamacush, winninish (ouananiche), togue, siscowet, and cisco in the 

 interior, and stit-tse, nissnee, quinnat, kisutch, and eulachon or oola- 

 chan along the Pacific coast. 



HI. 



The first special memoir of a really scientific nature on the fishes of 

 this region was communicated in 1794 by AVilliam Dandridge Peck, 

 but not published till 1801 in the Memoirs of the American Acadwu}'- 

 of Arts and Sciences. Peck was then resident at Kittery, N. II., and 

 his memoir was entitled "Description of Four Remarkable Fishes, 

 taken near the Piscataqua in New Hampshire." He aptly prefaces his 

 article with the remark that "that part of the Atlantic which washes 

 the extensive seacoast of Massachusetts affords a considerable number 

 of fishes, many of which are but little knowni," and, after some further 

 remarks, proceeds to describe the species. 



William Dandridge Peck was born in Boston, Mass., Ma}' 8, 1763, 

 graduated at Harvard in 1782, and subsequently served for some 3"ears 

 "in a counting house in Boston." "He was, an ingenious mechanic, 

 and made a microscope and many other delicate instruments." At the 

 same time he was a devoted student of natural history and especially 

 of ichthj'ology. His studies were crowned in 1805 by the reward of 

 a professorship of natural history in Harvard College, and this was 

 held till his death. He died October 3, 1822. 



Let us now return to his memoir. As already noted, the species 

 were four. The first was identified by him with the Ophldiinn imhrvhe 



« No reference is made directly by Murray, under alewife, to Smith's work, und only, in fact, to 

 Vv'inthrop (1678), Smyth (1867), Craig (1847), Perley (1852), and Lowell (1870). It is probable, how- 

 ever, that Murray had consulted Bartlett's Dictionary of Americanisms (1848, etc.)- Bartlett at first 

 derived alctvife unhesitatingly from "Indian, aloof," referring only to "Alosa vcrnalts, Storer, Massa- 

 chusetts Rep't." In the following explanatory remarks, however, it is less positively asserted that 

 " the name appears to be an Indian one, though it is somewhat changed, as appears by the earliest 

 account we have of it." The only reference by Bartlett to an early author is to Winthrop (1078). 

 Storer did not allude to the etymology or to aloof. It is quite likely that Smith's work is the source 

 of information for later writers, though he may have derived the idea from some one else. 



