teams, and caught several barrels of herring 

 as they came up the Taunton River to spawn. 

 These fish they brought alive to Weymouth 

 and liberated in Whitman's Pond ; and these 

 became the ancestors of the herring which have 

 been returning to Whitman's Pond for the last 

 century of Aprils. 



As soon as the weather warms in the spring 

 the herring make their appearance in the Run. 

 A south wind along in April is sure to fetch 

 them ; and from the first day of their arrival, 

 for about a month, they continue to come, on 

 their way to the pond. But they may be delayed 

 for weeks by cold or storms. Their sensitiveness 

 to changes of temperature is quite as delicate as a 

 thermometer's. On a favorable day— clear and 

 sunny with a soft south wind— they can be seen 

 stemming up-stream by hundreds. Suddenly 

 the wind shifts, blowing up cold from the east, 

 and long before the nicest instrument registers a 

 fraction of change in the temperature of the 

 Run, the herring have turned tail to and scur- 

 ried off down-stream to the salt water, 



They seem to mind nothing so much as this 

 particular change of the wind and the cold that 

 follows. It may blow or cloud over, and even 

 [347] 



