American Fisheries Society 271 



a weak mouth, and consequently could not be held by the 

 hook as well as most fishes. 



Another author of very recent date (last August), in 

 one of the sporting papers, contends that "weakfish" was 

 simply derived from "squeteague" by a series of changes, 

 euphonic and otherwise, which I will leave to your imagi- 

 nation. 



Another author has said that it was not originally "weak- 

 fish," but "wheatfish," and that "weakfish" is a corruption 

 of "wheatfish." x\s W. H. Herbert says, however, it does 

 not come in the wheat season but in the early spring. 



Now, then, what is the derivation of the word "weakfish?" 

 The explanation, after all, is very simple. "Weakfish" is a 

 heritage from our Dutch ancestors of the island of Man- 

 hattan, of the New Netherlands. They gave the name 

 "week-vis," and that name was adopted by one Steendam 

 in a poem in praise of the New Netherlands. The poem 

 was published about 1661. There the word is used in the 

 form "week-vis." That is very much like our English 

 word, but "week" does not mean the same thing in Dutch 

 as "weak" in England. "Week" in Dutch means primarily 

 soft or tender. The word "weakfish" indicates, then, a soft 

 and tender fish, and everyone acquainted with the fish 

 will recognize that the term is quite applicable. The name 

 is very easy to trace to its original source, and it is strange it 

 has not been traced before. Nevertheless in the latest dic- 

 tionaries it is given as "weak" and "fish ;" but it is really 

 derived from Dutch, as just explained. 



The name "squeteague" is perhaps of Indian origin. Its 

 original use is not known ; it does not occur in the earlier 

 works. 



The name "trout" was given by the original settlers of 

 Roanoke, Jamestown, etc., and is the one generally used 

 in the south. The common weakfish of the south is spotted 

 somewhat like a trout and as no true trout occurred in the 

 south to compare it with, trout was the name applied to it. 



Now this trout of the south, this weakfish of New York, 



