MOVEMENTS OF THE BRANCH ALEWIFE. 591 



tured at Cape Vincent vary in length from one and a quarter to eight inches. He never saw one 

 that would weigh over half a pound. Mr. E. Tyler writes that the largest individuals are about 

 nine inches long. 



Eeference has already been made, in another place, to the statement of Prof. H. L. Smith con- 

 cerning the abundance of this fish in Seneca Lake, New York, near Geneva. 



Mr. Ainsworth says that they were present at Cape Vincent in large shoals in 1873, and that 

 they increased in numbers until, in 1878, immense quantities were taken throughout the waters of 

 the lake and in the headwaters of the Saiut Lawrence. He also states that he knew one fisherman 

 to take fifteen barrels of Alewives from a small pound-net at one time. Mr. Tyler corroborates 

 the statement of their abundance in June, 1873, and in a letter dated July 27, 1878, adds : "Now 

 our waters are literally filled with them. In hauling seines they are often a terrible nuisance. 

 Such countless millions are hauled ashore at times, that it becomes necessary to lift the seine and 

 let them run out; it could never be got ashore with safety." 



Messrs. Clark & Eobbins, in a letter dated December 19, 1879, state that " they [Alewives] 

 interfere with pound and trap net fishing, as they fill the nets to the exclusion of other fish." 



Mr. George Burn, of the Exchange Bank of Canada, Montreal, says, in a letter dated August 

 20, 1878, that the Alewives come into the Saint Lawrence in great shoals at first, " the water being 

 fairly alive with them." 



Movements. — It will be observed, from what has already been said, that the Branch Ale- 

 wife is found in the waters under consideration, Just as in the coast streams, at or near the 

 surface of the water in immense schools. Mr. W. Ainsworth, in a letter previously quoted from, 

 writes: "They swim in large schools and rise to the surface, and, when the water is still, they cause 

 a ripple upon it similar to that produced by a school of mackerel." 



Mr. George Burn, it will be remembered, has stated that in the Saint Lawrence River they 

 appear in great shoals at first. 



It would seem that the disappearance of the Alewife from these waters is as sudden as its 

 appearance. Mr. B. Tyler, under date of September 1, 1878, remarks: " If possible for you to wait 

 until October, I will be able to give you every grade from three inches in length to full-grown fish. 

 The pound-nets at that time will be hauling, and barrels of them are taken at each haul. We can 

 get the large ones at any time with cisco gill-nets." Mr. Tyler was, however, unable to secure 

 specimens for us at the time when he supposed they would be abundant, and on January 20, 

 1879, he wrote: "We set to work every kind of device to get the Alewives. Our cisco fishermen 

 could get none in their gill-nets here, and I went to Sacket's Harbor, a distance of nine miles, 

 and made arrangements with the fish-dealers to notify all the pound-net fishermen to save some; 

 but only one was caught in Chaumont Bay during the fall. I allso went once, and sent twice, up 

 the shore towards Oswego, seven miles, where an immense seine is hauled, and where, in the 

 summer, these Alewives are so abundant that it is impossible to get the net ashore at times; I 

 certainly thought I could not fail there; but only one was taken during the, fall. Our cisco nets 

 are often in one hundred feet of water, and no Alewives are gilled after the 1st of September. 



Mr. George Burn has observed the sudden disappearance of the Alewife at Montreal, but he 

 believes that they sometimes reappear after their first disappearance. It would seem from the 

 above statements that different schools of Alewives are present at various times during the 

 summer, and that all of them leave late in September or early in October. It seems also as if 

 they go into the deeper water of the lake, and are sometimes caught in gUl-nets. Mr. E. Tyler, 

 writing from Henderson, New Tork, October 5, 1879, makes the following statement: "The 



