584 NATUEAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



William Wood, in his " N'ew England's Prospects," London, 1634, remarks: 



" The Herrings be much like them that be caught on the English coast. Alewives be a kind 

 of fish which is much like a Herring, which in the latter end of Aprill come up to the fresh Elvers 

 to spawne, in such multitudes as is almost incredible, pressing up iu such shallow waters as will 

 scarce permit them to swimme, having likewise such longing desire after the fresh water ponds, 

 that no beating with poles, or forcive agitations by other devices, will cause them to returne to 

 the sea, till they have cast their spawne." 



The same writer makes mention of the fact that in the spring, when the Alewives pass up the 

 rivers, abundance of bass may be caught in the rivers. 



Wood, writing in 1633, states that a little below the fall in Charles Eiver the inhabitants of 

 Watertown had built a wear to catch fish, wherein they took great store of Shads and Alewives. 

 " In two tides they have gotten 200,000 of these fishes." 



Schoepf, in his " Fishes of New York," 1788, refers to the American Herring under the name 

 G. harengus, stating that it is similar to that of Europe, but that the body has scales which are 

 more easily detached. The back is glistening blue, the belly white, widely carinate, and provided 

 with saw-like scutes. The fish which he has in mind is undoubtedly one of the river Herrings, 

 since he states that it appears in May and June ou the coast of New York, later than the Shad 

 and not in such great numbers. 



Pennant, in his "Arctic Zoology," states that " Herrings leave the salt water in March and 

 run up the rivers and shallow streams of Carolina in such numbers that the inhabitants fling them 

 ashore by shovels full. Passengers trample them under foot fording the rivers. They are not so 

 large as the ' English,' but exceed them in flavor when pickled." 



Geographical distribution. — The geographical distribution of the two species has not 

 been thoroughly worked out, but as now understood may be stated as follows : The " Blue-back," 

 or "Glut" Herring, G. cestivalis, Mitchill, occurs in the Saint John's Eiver, Florida, and in all the 

 coast waters of the Eastern United States to the Gulf of Maine. On the coast of Maine this 

 species rarely enters rivers, but is found abundantly at sea. It is probably the "Spring" Herring 

 referred to by Col. Theodore Lyman as occurring below the dams in the rivers of Massachusetts. 

 Its area of greatest abundance is in the Albemarle and Chesapeake regions. The name of "Glut" 

 Herring is derived from the fact that it makes its appearance in great schools, and all at once 

 becomes so abundant as to glut the markets. The formei appears later than the " Spring" Herring, 

 or "Gaspereau," and some time after the Shad. Its advent is much less gradual than that of the 

 "Spring" Herring. Its peculiar movements are due to certain conditions of temperature, which 

 will be discussed below. 



At present, as the latest investigations show, the river range of this species in the Southern 

 States does not extend far beyond tide water. In early days, before obstructions were placed in the 

 James Eiver, they are said to have ascended as far as Lexington ; now they do not reach the vicinity 

 of Eichmond, although there are no obstructions below that city. The "Spring" Herring, or 

 Gaspereau, G. vernalis, Mitchill, is more northerly in its range. Until discovered by Colonel 

 McDonald in the Neuse Eiver of North Carolina, in the spring of 1880, it had not been definitely 

 recorded south of the Chesapeake Bay. Although in that year this species was particularly 

 abundant in the Albemarle and Chesapeake regions, constituting a considerable portion of the 

 entire catch, it is ordinarily much less numerous, and the area of its greatest abundance is in the 

 region from the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to Cape May. As has already been stated, the Alewives 

 of the Connecticut Eiver are chiefly of this species, as also is the Herring of the Hudson and of 

 the streams emptying into Cape Cod. In the Chesapeake region this species is from three to four 



