RIVER FISHERIES. 87 



and just regulations will keep all these pollutions 

 within bounds, and render our streams fit habitations 

 for their people. Shad are by no means the only fish 

 that may be increased by artificial breeding. The 

 salmon has already been spoken of, and a table has 

 been given to illustrate this part of its history. 



Thirty years ago no fresh salmon were brought to 

 our market from the British Provinces, simply be- 

 cause the Ponobscot, the Kennebec, and the Andros- 

 coggin were full of them, while the Canadians had 

 already exhausted the tributaries of the St. Lawrence 

 above, and including, the River Jaques Cartier. Now 

 we have shut out the fish by high dams, such as 

 those at Augusta, at Great Works, 8cc. But the 

 Canadians, by wise legislation, have re-peopled their 

 streams, and the St. Lawrence at present boasts 87 

 salmon tributaries. 



These black bass, apparently impelled by no other 

 feeling than that of restlessness, performed an under- 

 ground journey of fifteen miles in a brick aqueduct 

 whose greater diameter was six feet ! 



The alewife, (alosa tyrannus,) although very inferior 

 to the species above cited, is valuable, first, on account 

 of its great prolificness, and secondly, because in its 

 ascent from the sea it will penetrate in vast numbers 

 the smallest brooks. At the spawning season it is 

 extremely tame, and will crowd into the locks of a 

 canal, or any unusual place, whereas the shad is much 

 more shy, and only effects the more open parts of a 

 stream. On the Agawam River, the ale wives, after 

 passing up a small ditch, whose lower end was among 

 the clatter of mill-wheels, and 25!) feet of which were 

 covered, pushed through an under-ground drain a 

 thousand feet long, in order to get to the pond where 

 they spawned. This under-ground drain became 

 stopped, and the young alewives could not get to the 

 sea. Some of them were taken in January, and had 



