THE SEA FISHERIES OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 127 



coast at different times, or its attractiveness to other fish. Wherever 

 it is met with, at different seasons of the year, from Florida to Penob- 

 scot Bay, it is always in request for bait. It is, however, only in the 

 northern part of the United States that it is "slivered" and put up in 

 large quantities either in ice or in salt and carried on distant voyages 

 for the purpose of catching cod or mackerel. There is a peculiar 

 toughness of the flesh and rankness of flavor which seem to constitute 

 an appetizing attraction, not to be resisted by fishes generally, and the 

 possessor of menhaden bait will be able to entice mackerel and cod, 

 striped bass, sea bass, and other fishes, when a fellow-fisherman near 

 by finds other bait valueless in comparison. 



The earliest appearance of schools of menhaden off the coast of the 

 Middle States is the signal for securing a quantity for the cod fishing 

 banks ; and until their disappearance from the North they are in con- 

 stant request, this application of the fish, of course, being entirely inde- 

 pendent of its use in the preparation of oil and guano. 



(2) Alewives. — The two species of alewives, taken together, have a 

 still greater range than the menhaden, being found from Florida to the 

 coast of Labrador, and are, if anything, more abundant in the Middle 

 and Southern States than at points farther north. They enter the 

 mouths of all the rivers from the sea in vast schools, beginning in the 

 early spring in each latitude, and can be taken for a few weeks in any 

 quantity. They can be obtained as early as January in the Saint John's 

 Eiver, Florida, and in March or April in the Potomac, and would, un- 

 doubtedly, if other fish were unprocurable, be used for the spring cod 

 fishery, serving a very excellent purpose in this respect. It is probable 

 that the numerous schools of adult fish, coming in from the depths of 

 the ocean to the shores in the spring, and of the young that pass out 

 seaward in the autumn draw the larger sea fish into the vicinity of the 

 land, and there can be.no reasonable question that the great decrease 

 in numbers of the latter, within the last fifty or one hundred years, has 

 been caused, in large part, by human agencies, which have rendered it 

 necessary to change the location of the fishing-grounds and to greatly 

 limit the capture in ordinary boats of cod, haddock, hake, and the like 

 in the bays and on the shores of New England, which was formerly so 

 extensive and profitable. 



As will be shown elsewhere, it is entirely within the power of man to 

 restore, in a great measure, the previous abundance and greatly to im- 

 prove the general fisheries of the coast. 



The attractions of the young shad and salmon are doubtless to be 

 added to those of the alewife and herring in drawing the larger fish 

 towards the shore, but they are of less moment in this respect in view 

 of their inferior abundance. 



(3) SeaHerring. — Next to the menhaden, and indeed in advance of it in 

 some parts of British North America, is to be mentioned the sea herring, 

 which is to be found in one locality or another throughout the entire 



