462 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Eiver. They are caught Iq the Saint John, near Fredericton, but not 

 above, the water being too rapid. The shad taken in the fresh water 

 are very inferior to those which remain exclusively in the salt water of 

 the bay, and the longer they are in the river the more worthless they 

 become. 



2. — THE GASPEREAU, OR ALEWIFE. 



The alewife appears in great quantities in the Chesapeake in March ; 

 at New York it appears with the shad. The earliest fish appear in the 

 harbor of Saint John in April, but the main body does not enter the 

 river before the 10th of May. It would, therefore, appear that the ale- 

 wife also comes from the south, like the common shad, to deposit its 

 spawn in northern rivers. 



The usual length of this species of shad, which is best known in New 

 Brunswick and Nova Scotia by the name of gaspereau, is from 8 to 10 

 inches ; the back a blue-green, approaching to purple ; sides, silvery. 

 The head, dark green above, and the tip of the lower jaw of the same 

 color; opercles, yellow. 



In the Bay of Fundy this fish is abundant ; in the Gulf of Saint Law- 

 rence it is less plentiful and of much smaller size ; in the bay of Chaleur 

 it has not yet been noticed, and, like the shad, the bay of Miramichi 

 would seem to be its extreme limit north. 



The catch of gaspereau in the harbor of Saint John varies from 12,000 

 to 16,000 barrels each season, and sometimes reaches 20,000 barrels. It 

 ascends the Saint John to the same localities as the shad, in order to 

 deposit its spawn. In the Miramichi it ascends to the source, and 

 spawns in the Miramichi Lake. 



