THE EIVER FISHERIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 669 



Rochester, iu 1880, eleven men were employed for a part of the year. The capital invested in 

 apparatus was $2,130. The catch, valued at $2,275, included 1,000 barrels of alewives and menha- 

 den, 2,000 lobsters, 1,000 squeteague, 8,000 tautog, 9,000 scnp, 500 blueflsh, and 25 Spanish mackerel. 



WAREHAM AND HALF-WAY-POND RIVERS. At Agawam station, in East Wareham, 3 miles 

 inland from the northern end of Buzzard's Bay, is Half-way-pond River. This empties into the 

 Wareham River, and the latter into the bay. Large bodies of alewives annually pass from the 

 bay up these rivers to spawn, a considerable number being taken at East Wareham. The State 

 law determines the time when they may be takuf this period is between April 1 and June 1. 

 The exact time when they may be caught, the price at which they may be sold to citizens, and 

 other regulations are left to a committee of three from each of the towns of Wareham and Ply- 

 mouth. This committee sells the exclusive privilege of the catch at auction, and $400 to $500 a 

 season is generally realized by the sale. The price which the citizens must pay is fixed by the 

 committee at 16 cents a hundred fish, or fit cents a barrel ; one barrel is allowed to each inhabitant 

 who may desire it. No fish may be sold to any except citizens for the space of two hours after the 

 fish are caught, but after that time they may be sold to any person at such price as can be agreed 

 upon. Provision is made that citizens shall always be able to obtain a limited supply at the price 

 already mentioned, namely, 16 cents a hundred. The bulk of the catch is sold by peddlers through 

 the neighboring towns. At the present time the catch is not more than two-thirds as large as it 

 was a number of years ago. In 1880 the fisheries of this place gave employment to six men for 2 

 months. The catch was 700 barrels of alewives, worth $1,050. 



THE ALEWIFE FISHERIES OF, WAREHAM IN 1815. The following statement of the condition 

 of the alewife fisheries of Wareham, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, in 1815, is quoted from 

 the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. IV, 2d series : , 



"Of the alewife, there are evidently two kinds, not only in size but habit, which annually 

 visit the brooks passing to the sea at Wareham. The larger, which set in some days earlier, inva- 

 riably seek ihe Weweautic sources. These, it is said, are preferred for the present use, perhaps 

 because they are earliest. The second, less in size, and usually called ' black backs,' equally true 

 to instinct, as invariably seek the Agawaam. These are generally barrelled for exportation. In 

 the sea, at the outlet of these streams, not far asunder, these fish must for weeks swim in common, 

 yet each selects its own and peculiar stream. Hence an opinion prevails on the spot that these 

 fish seek the particular lake where they were spawned. 



"Another popular anecdote is as follows : Alewives had ceased to visit a pond in Weymouth, 

 which they had formerly frequented. The municipal authorities took the usual measures, by 

 opening the sluice-ways in the spring at mill-dams, and also procured live alewives from other 

 ponds, placing them in this, where they spawned and sought the sea. No alewives, however, ap- 

 peared here until the third year ; hence three years has been assumed by some as the period of 

 growth of this fish. 



" The popular opinions at either place may or may not agree with the laws of the natural 

 history of migratory fish. The young alewives we have noticed to descend about the 20th of June 

 and before, continuing so to do some time, when they are about 2 inches long, their full growth 

 being from 12 to 15 inches. We have imbibed an opinion that this fish attains its size in a 

 year ; but if asked for proof, we cannot produce it. These fish, it is said, do not visit our brooks 

 in such numbers as in former days. The complaint is of old date. Thus, in 1753, Douglass 

 remarks on migratory fishes : ' The people living upon the banks of Merrimack observe that sev- 

 eral species of fish, such as salmon, shad, and alewives, are uotso plenty in their seasons as formerly ; 

 perhaps from disturbance, or some other disgust, as it happens with herrings in the several friths 



