THE RIVER FISHERIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 669 
Rochester, in 1880, eleven men were employed for a part of the year. The capital invested in 
apparatus was $2,130. The catch, valued at $2,275, included 1,000 barrels of alewives and menha- 
den, 2,000 lobsters, 1,000 squeteague, 8,000 tautog, 9,000 scup, 500 bluefish, and 25 Spanish mackerel. 
WAREHAM AND HALF.WAY-POND RiveRS.—At Agawam station, in East Wareham, 3 miles 
inland from the northern end of Buzzard’s Bay, is Half-way-pond River. This empties into the 
Wareham River, and the latter into the bay. Large bodies of alewives annually pass from the 
bay up these rivers to spawn, a considerable number being taken at East Wareham. The State 
law determines the time when they may be taken; this period is between April 1 and June 1. 
The exact time when they may be caught, the price at which they may be sold to citizens, and 
other regulations are left to a committee of three from each of the towns of Wareham and. Ply- 
mouth. This committee sells the exclusive privilege of the catch at auction, and $400 to $500 a 
season is generally realized by the sale. The price which the citizens must pay is fixed by the 
committee at 16 cents a hundred fish, or 64 cents a barrel; one barrel is allowed to each inhabitant 
who may desire it. No fish may be sold to any except citizens for the space of two hours after the 
fish are caught, but after that time they may be sold to any person at such price as can be agreed 
upon. Provision is made that citizens shall always be able to obtain a limited supply at the price 
already mentioned, namely, 16 cents a hundred. The bulk of the catch is sold by peddlers through 
the neighboring towns. At the present time the catch is not more than ‘two-thirds as large as it 
was a number of years ago. In 1880 the fisheries of this place gave employment to six men for 2 
months. The catch was 700 barrels of alewives, worth $1,050. 
THE ALEWIFE FISHERIES OF WAREHAM IN 1815.—The following statement of the condition 
of the alewife fisheries of Wareham, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, in 1815, is quoted from 
the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. IV, 2d series: 
“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, inva- 
riably seek the Weweantic sources. These, it is said, are preferred for the 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 Agawaam. These are generally barrelled for exportation. In 
the sea, at the outlet of these streams, not far asunder, these fish must for weeks swim in common, 
yet each selects its own and’ peculiar stream. Hence an opinion prevails on the spot that these 
fish 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 sluice-ways 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. No alewives, however, ap- 
peared here until the third year; hence three years has been assumed by some as the period of 
growth of this fish. 
“The popular opinions at either place may or may not agree with the laws of the natural 
history of migratory fish. The young alewives we have noticed to descend about the 20th of June 
and before, continuing so to do some time, when they are about 2 inches long, their full growth 
being from 12 to 15 inches. We have imbibed an opinion that this fish attains its size in a® 
year; bat if asked for proof, we cannot produce it. These fish, it is said, do not visit our brooks 
in such numbers as in former days. The complaint is of old date. Thus, in 1753, Douglass 
remarks on migratory fishes: ‘The people living upon the banks of Merrimack observe that sev- 
eral species of fish, suchas salmon, shad, and alewives, are notso plenty in their seasonsas formerly ; 
perhaps from disturbance, or some other disgust, as it happens with herrings in the several friths 
