ALEWIV11S IX THE SAINT LAWRENCE. 589 



the limits of tidal waters. The United States Commissioner has received many letters concerning 

 this Alt-wilt- from persons living on the shores of Lake Ontario and in the vicinity of Lakes 

 Cayiiga and Seneca. Some thought that these fish were Shad; others, however, recognized the 

 fact of their disagreement from that fish, and spoke of them as a species of Herring. It is note- 

 worthy that the Alewife, so far as we know, did not appear in Lake Ontario until after the intro- 

 duction of Shad into that lake by the Fish Commissioner of New York. We have been unable to 

 obtain any evidence of its occurrence in that lake before the Shad was introduced. Again, Lakes 

 Seneca and Cayuga are separated from Lake Ontario by obstructions which could not well be over- 

 come by spawning fish. The only theory on which the fact of the presence of this fish in these 

 \e\\ York lakes can In- explained would appear to lie either that yomifj Herring have been intro- 

 tlnccd by the employe's of the New York Pish Commission when instructed to place shad eggs in 

 the lakes, or that young Herring have been taken out of the cans in the act of changing the 

 water upon the shad spawn prior to their transportation to these waters. It is a significant 

 fact that these broods of young Herring have been found only in the lakes in which Shad have 

 liceii introduced. 



We are in possession of information which seems to establish conclusively that the Alewife 

 does not occur in the lower waters of the Saint Lawrence Kiver, nor was there any evidence of ite 

 presence at Montreal until within the last nine years. 



The name which is most universally applied to this species wherever it is known along the 

 Saint Lawrence Kiver is "Gaspereau." In the vicinity of Cayuga Lake it sometimes receives the 

 name "Cayuga Lake Shad." 



"The Alewife is known to exist in Lakes Seneca and Cayuga, and in Lake Ontario, specimens 

 from all these waters being amongst the collections of the National Museum. It is said to occur 

 also in the headwaters of the river Saint Lawrence, and the probability of its presence there is 

 strengthened by the following extract from a communication to "Forest and Stream," August 13, 

 1878, by a gentleman who writes under the pseudonym "Piscator": 



"... a lively little visitor which came to us in shoals a few weeks ago, and disapi>eared 

 again. The visitor in question was a little, silvery fish, very similar to a Herring, but having its 

 belly (as 1 found to my cost in taking it off my flies) serrated or edged with sharp spines. I pre- 

 sume it is the same fish which has appeared in such abundance in the Upper Saint Lawrence and 

 Lake Ontario." 



Mr. Fred. Mather, in a letter dated July 22, 1878, says: "I have heard of their being taken 

 with a fly at Quebec (where they are called Gaspereaux), and also above there on the Saint 

 Lawrence." 



They appear to be little known, however, in the Province of Quebec, for Mr. J. F. Whiteaves, 

 of Montreal, in a letter dated July 26, 1878, writes: "So far as I know, the Gaspereau, or Alewife, 

 is not found at all in the waters of the Province of Quebec. I have never seen a living or recently 

 caught specimen." 



SCARCITY OF ALEWIVES IN THE SAINT LAWRENCE. Professor J. W. Dawson, writing from 

 Little Metis, Province of Quebec, July 30, 1878, states as follows: "The species is quite abundant 

 in the Northumberland Strait and the Bay de Chaleur and rivers entering these, but so far as I can 

 learn rare in the river Saint Lawrence. ... At this place (Metis, which you will find on the 

 south side of the Saint Lawrence a little below Father Point), I am told that Gaspereaux are mere 

 stragglers, api>e:mng only very rarely and in small numbers; but that they are more plentiful at 

 Matane, thirty miles farther east. I do not know of their occurrence on the north shore opposite 

 this place, but have no positive information. I have never heard of the occurrence of the Gaspe- 

 reau at Montreal, though the Shad ascends the river to that place, and far up the Ottawa." 



