192 DIVISION I. VERTEBRAL ANIMALS.— CLASS IV. PISCES. 
of the orchards, they make their periodical visit to the interior. The old 
Shad return in August; the young at a later period. 
s usually from one to four pounds in weight, and has been 
The species 
known to attain the length of three feet. In its fresh state (broiled, baked, 
or fried), it is an agreeable and wholesome diet. Ihave eaten it on the 
tables of fishermen, in its salted state, boiled, and found it excellent. 
A. Menhaden. —The Menhaden. This fish, sometimes called the 7/ard- 
head and Pauhagen, although it has many of the characteristics of /osa, 
in other respects comes nearer to the herring, especially by its excessively 
oily flesh. As a general thing, it is larger than the alewife or the English her- 
ring. From May to November it throngs our waters in countless millions, 
and is used as bait, and manure for land. They are strewed by cart loads 
over the fields, and, as they decay, become a powerful fertilizer. One Men- 
haden is considered equal to a shovelful of barnyard manure. This method 
of using them, however, is open to many objections. The decaying fish fill 
the surrounding atmosphere with an intolerable stench, which is productive 
of dysentery and other diseases. To obviate this difficulty, factories have 
been established to manufacture the Menhaden into a kind of guano. 
“The net, with which the fish are caught, is peculiarly managed ; it is 
about one hundred and ten fathoms in length, and provided with corks ‘on 
one side, and iron rings on the other. When a school of fish is discovered, 
two seine boats, each bearing its portion of the seine, are started off noise- 
lessly in opposite directions, and rapidly surround the fish. As soon as this 
is accomplished, the boats having formed a circle and coming together, the 
ends of the net are joined. The scine now encloses the fish, being kept in 
a vertical position by means of the cork floats. Ropes pass through these 
rings, and are attached to a heavy leaden weight, which is thrown over- 
board, and, by drawing the ropes, purses the net. The fish are thus brought 
near the surface, and loaded on board the ‘ carry-aways,’ to be taken to the 
factory’s dock. At the factory, the fish are measured either in cars or 
boxes, and are drawn upon the railway to the tanks, where they are thrown 
into water, and a full head of steam turned on into the bottom of the tank, 
which contains some sixteen to eighteen thousand fish. After thirty minutes’ 
cooking, the water is drained off, and a man, getting into the tank, fills the 
curbs, which are circular, and formed of strong, wooden slats, bound and 
lined with heavy iron. These are rolled under a solid, stationary head, fit- 
ting closely the inside of the curb, and against which the fish are pressed, as 
the curb is slowly, but powerfully, raised by an hydraulic press. The oil and 
the water absorbed by the fish in boiling are pressed out throuch the slats, 
and carried by leaders to the tanks in the shed by the side of the factory, 
where the oil-man skims, boils, and otherwise prepares it for barrelling. As 
