88 AMERICAN 



oi grown since October, for they were no bigger than 

 in that month. Others, taken afterwards, were two- 

 thirds of their natural size ; but whether these last 

 old fish that had been shot in, or whether they 

 ronng of a previous season, or of the 

 not be determined. In a brook 



water was so cold that the alewives avoided it, 

 Mr, Tudale tried an important experiment. H 

 a dam across, and in the pond thus formed pu \ 

 aJewives, These bred there, and they and their y 

 pasted over the dam to the sea* The next *: 

 Urge numbers of alewives parsed op this brea- 

 the first time on record, and were seen leaping & 

 face of the dam, in vain attempt* to sarmount i t. I h i > 

 is a crucial experiment, so for as concerns tta t. 

 that a fish returns to its birthplace to spawn, even 

 tinder an unfavourable condition, (cold water,) but it 

 does not certainly prove that the ale wife gets its growth 

 in a single year. For those that were seen nii^hr 

 been the original breeders, together with some ' 

 panions which they led from their usual course up the 

 warm stream. So far as is known, neither th 

 wile nor the shad get their growth in less t.h^n four 

 or five years. The instinct of return to bin 

 not absolute among these migratory fUbes ; u, < : r < o f : 

 apparently certain stragglers wrong-headed indi- 

 vidual*, which, like some men, refute to do * Unn^ 

 simply h^jjime others &o do it And again, th<: in- 



; v be modified by circumntances. 'I ^ 

 1848, when the Merrimack wa clo^:d by th: Law- 

 renc^ ^ alenives, finding (lj<:if f^Uj i>on':'J ;,t. 



';<#! about, deufcended ^' ( - nv<-,r, coi 



, 



'mbm&tl of th - ' , ' ( r; ''"^ iiu.i: 



stream almost solid, An. ':t wa report^' i m 



the i 



:tiaa^ in dhapeof arirer'imouth by new stake* 



