SHAD AND OTHER FISHERIES. 99 



less valuable ; the inner dyked part is the most valuable. 

 At the head of the bay, however, and at a distance from 

 the stream, it is almost worthless, being little better than 

 a pure bog ; as is the case with the upper part of the 

 Sackville marshes, which I have already described. But 

 here, as in that locality, the means of improvement are 

 at hand. The muddy waters of the bay will overlay 

 the sphagnum swamp with rich alluvial mud, whenever 

 canals shall be cut to allow the tidal current to ascend 

 and spread over it. 



Many of the farmers on the bay employ the season 

 between the sowing of their grain and the cutting of 

 their hay in fishing for shad, Alosa prcestabilis. This rich 

 and highly-esteemed fish, unlike most others of the same 

 genus, comes from the southern coasts of America to 

 spawn in the northern rivers being caught at Charleston 

 in South Carolina in January and February; in the 

 Hudson (New York State) in the end of March and 

 beginning of April in Massachusetts in May, and arriv 

 ing at the head of the Bay of Fundy in the month of 

 June. This year the take has been good, and the 

 farmers have caught on an average about twenty-five 

 barrels each, worth from five to seven dollars a barrel. 



Fish of various kinds are exceedingly plentiful, along 

 the east coast of New Brunswick, in many of its bays, 

 and in the mouths of its rivers. The largest fisheries are 

 established on the north-east coast, at the mouth of the 

 Bay de Chaleur, where many of the French families are 

 employed in them. As on our Irish coasts, however, 

 this source of wealth has hitherto been much neglected 

 in New Brunswick ; and the Provincial Legislature have 

 tried various means of encouraging the prosecution of 

 the fisheries on a more extensive and systematic scale. 

 As population and capital increase in the colony, their 

 efforts will doubtless be followed by gradually increasing 

 success. 



