EASTERN COAST FISHES. 27 1 



tion is made of the great numbers of such young shad that are 

 taken in herring seines and rated and sold as herrings, or properly 

 speaking, alevvives ; for the herring proper, although called by that 

 name, do not enter fresh waters. That young shad will rise at an 

 artificial fly is natural, for flies and larvs are their natural food. 

 Mr. Lyman has detected and given the scientific names of such 

 flies taken from their stomachs. This naturalist has also discov- 

 ered that young shad have teeth, while the adults have not. The 

 male salmon, as well as the male shad, is pubescent a year earlier 

 than the female. That shad remain in the rivers two years, go to 

 sea, and the following summer return full-grown fish, is a notion 

 that is now obsolete with intelligent people who have given the 

 matter attention and thought. When female shad return from sea 

 the first time they weigh from two to two and a half pounds, are not 

 merchantable fish, and hence are not brought to market. 



Gaspereau ; herring (Southern States) ; alewife (New England) ; gaspereau 

 (British Provinces) ; spring herring (New England) ; hyack (Nova Scotia) ; 

 kyack, bluefish, alewife, sawbelly, cat-thresher {M.a\ne,)—Pomolob!ts pseudo- 

 harengus. — Gill. 



Although this representative of the herring family is in no sense 

 a game fish, generally speaking, it has been known to afford the 

 keenest sport to the fly fisherman in Nova Scotia and New Bruns- 

 wick in the spring when it ascends the rivers to spawn. By the 

 Indians of Southern Nova Scotia, it is known as the " hyack," and 

 is taken by them in great numbers with dip nets, at the foot of 

 dams or natural obstructions which they attempt to surmount. 

 It was the principal food fish of the Acadians a century and a half 

 ago, and was called xSxt gaspereau by them. Several rivers m the 

 Maritime Provinces bear this name, and a considerable arm of the 

 Basin of Minas at the head of the Bay of Fundy, is known as Gas- 

 pereau Bay. The spring run, during which only can they be taken 

 with a rod, extends from the first of May to the middle of June. 

 Flies similar in color to those used for shad, but smaller, are 

 requisite. The gaspereau is deep blue on the back, shading to 

 silvery white on the belly. They run from eight to ten inches in 

 length. 



