ALB WIVES IJ^ NEW ENGLAND. 581 



From the " Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1816," ' are taken the following 

 physiological and historical notes on the occurrence of the Alewife at Wareham, Massachusetts: 



" 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, 

 invariably seek the Weweantitt sources. These, it is said, are preferred for 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 Agawam. These are genera ly barreled for exportation. 

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

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

 these flsh 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 sluiceways 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. ISTo Alewives, however, 

 appeared here until the third year;^ hence three years have been assumed by some as the period of 

 growth of this flsh. 



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

 history of migratory flsh. 



"The young Alewives we have noticed to descend about the 20th of June and before, con- 

 tinuing so to do some time, when they are about two inches long, their full growth being from 

 twelve to flfteen inches. We have imbibed an opinion that this flsh attains its size in a year, but 

 if asked for proof we cannot produce it. 



"These flsh, it is said, do not visit our brooks in such numbers as in former days. The com- 

 plaint is of old date. Thus, in 1753, Douglass remarks on migratory fishes : ' The people living 

 upon the banks of Merrimack observe, that several species of flsh, such as salmon. Shad, and Ale- 

 wives, are not so plenty in their seasons as formerly; perhaps from disturbance, or some other 

 disgust, as it happens with Herrings in the several friths of Scotland.' Again, speaking of Her- 

 rings, he says: ' They seem to be variable or whimsical as to their ground.' It is a fact, too, that 

 where they most abound, on the coast of Norway and Sweden, their occasional disappeai'ance is a 

 subject of remark.' 



"The Herring is essentially different from the Alewife in size (much smaller) and in habit. It 

 continues, we believe, in the open sea, and does not seek pond-heads. Attempts are sometimes 

 made, by artiflcial cuts, to induce them to visit ponds which had not before a natural outlet. These 

 little cuts, flowing in the morning, become intermittent at noon, as the spring and summer advance. 

 Evaporation, therefore, which is very great from the surface of the pond, should, probably, be 

 considered in the experiment, making the canal as low as the midsummer level of the pond, other- 

 wise it may be that the flsh perish in the passage. This may, in other respects, have its incon- 

 veniences, at seasons when the ponds are full. 



"The town of Plymouth, for a series of years, annually voted from one thousand to flve hun- 

 dred and two hundred barrels of Alewives to be taken at all their brooks, in former years. 



"In the year 1730, the inhabitants were ordered not to take more than four barrels each; a 



' Vol. iv, second series, pp. 294-296. 



'This anecdote was related in a circle of the members of the general court at Boston, when a member from 

 Maine remarked that a similar event had occurred in his vicinity. 



'Previous to 1752 the Herrings had entirely disappeared seventy-two years ou the coast of Sweden; and yet, in 

 1782, 139,000 barrels were cured by salt at the mouth of the Gothela, near Gottenburg.— Studies of Nature. 



