ILLUSTRATIONS. 109 



rer separate, interfere, or transgress in their way to their respective ponds or 

 lakes. The great spawning rendezvous of,our herrings, were the cool whole 

 eome waters of the Saratoga Lake. At the proper season the lake was filled 

 with them, and they afforded abundant supplies to all the surrounding country ; 

 its outlet fish creek was obstructed by mill-dams, which prevented the ascent of 

 the fish. The consequences have been not only to exclude it from the upper 

 waters, but to create a most serious diminution in the waters below. If it had 

 not been for this obstruction, we would have had not only a sufficiency for our 

 home supply, but a valuable article for exportation. The state at large is inter- 

 ested in removing these barriers against the ascent of the fish. Let the mill-seats 

 be purchased, the mill-dams demolished, and the communication be completely 

 opened ; and let herrings, at the time of spawning, be conveyed alive to the 

 Saratoga Lake ; their offspring will, in due time, descend to the ocean, and in- 

 evitably return. At the first settlement of the town of Hugbam,'in Massachu- 

 setts, the alewives were in such plenty as to give a full supply to the inhabitants, 

 which was destroyed by the erection of the mill-dams, that prevented their as- 

 cent to a pond. The people attempted, after a great lapse of time, the re-estab- 

 lishment of them, in which they succeeded by opening proper fishways through 

 the mill-dams, and conveying the fish in the spring of the year, in a proper vehi- 

 cle, into the pond ; this was done by keeping it near the bank of the river, aud 

 frequently shifting the water in the vessel. After this, the fish increased annu- 

 ally until there was a pretty good supply, but as there were many shoal places 

 hi the river which required very constant attention, the expense of which, and 

 the loss sustained by stopping the mills, exceeded, in the opinion of the town, the 

 advantages of the fish ; the business was neglected, so that for a number of year=; 

 they have been entirely cut off from the pond. Notwithstanding, some of the 

 fish annually return to the mouth of the river, urging a passage up, but they are 

 decreased in number and reduced in size. 



Dr. Barton has very justly observed, that " There is a vast chasm in the His- 

 tory of the Fish ; a chasm, too, in relation to which I have always deemed the 

 most interesting part of animal natural history, I mean the instincts, or manners, 

 or habits of animals. How little do we know of the instincts of the fishes ! forgetting 

 that the element in which they live precludes us from acquiring an easy or a 

 rapid acquaintance with the mores of the fishes, and not sufficiently modest to ac- 

 knowledge their own incurious supiueness, the best naturalists have fallen into 

 the error, that fishes are a stupid race of beings ; that they discover very little 

 of ingenuity ; and that they are in a great measure strangers to that storge, or 

 powerful affection, by which animals are so generally attached to their young. 

 I venture to assert, that very much of what has been said on these subjects, is 

 mere declamation, nnsanrtionpd by mlarj^d observation or experience My 



