172 AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK. 



microscopic animals contained in the water as it passes 

 through its gills in breathing, and appropriates such food to 

 its sustenance. 



It is hardly worth while to go into a description of this 

 fish, or give a portrait of it ; for the outline of its- form and 

 general appearance is as familiar to us all, as the cut of the 

 coat worn by "one of our oldest and most respectable 

 citizens," to which coat the Shad has given a name — may 

 his tribe decrease not, nor his fatness and flavor diminish 

 with each vernal return of his Shadship ! 



Yarrell says the Alice Shad, a European species, also 

 improves the higher it ascends the rivers. It is admitted, 

 however, by Englishmen, that the flesh of the Shad he men- 

 tions, bears no comparison to ours ; nor does it attain more 

 than one-third the size. 



Shad ascend all our rivers, from Georgia to Maine, in the 

 spring, for the purpose of spawning, and at one time every 

 tributary of the larger rivers, that had depth enough to float 

 these deep-bodied fish, were annually visited by them, until 

 mill-dams, tanneries, and other obstructions and nuisances 

 prevented their return to their native waters and spawn beds. 

 They entered the various creeks and brooks that feed the 

 Susquehanna, away up amongst the mountains, hundreds of 

 miles from their marine feeding-grounds, where they had spent 

 the winter in attaining that increase in size, which is only 

 exceeded by the almost miraculous growth of the Salmon. 

 It is hardly to be wondered at, that many of the old settlers 

 on the streams in the interior, opposed the introduction of 

 canals and slack- water navigation, when these improvements 

 were at the expense of the annual visits of the Shad, which 

 not only furnished them an article of luxurious diet until the 

 month of June, but gave them a stock of smoked and salted 

 fish for the winter. 



