THE SMELTS 
241 
it is with difficulty that they can be driven downstream, even when violent beating 
and thrashing 1 2 of the brook with alder tops or wading in the stream are resorted to. 
If the fish are particularly numerous those near the net (set crosswise in the brook) 
may be driven in, but the net must be lifted quickly or many of the smelt will run 
out. The fish do not rush upstream but move with moderate speed until they come 
to a place where the water is swift, when they shoot ahead; and if the water of such 
places is shallow, the flipping of the tails of the fish indicates how numerous they 
may be. 
Writing of the Swedish smelt, Smitt (1895, p. 872) says: 
“The smelt is of a stupid and sluggish temperament,” wrote Ekstrom, and this opinion has 
afterwards been reiterated by other writers — “ silly as a smelt ” is a common Swedish saying. But 
why it is thus stigmatized more than other fishes, we cannot say. Gathered in shoals during the 
spawning, when it is ruled by sexual instincts alone, it is easy to catch like many other fishes; and 
this is probably the origin of its reputed stupidity. 
On the day following a run of smelts the eggs may be seen attached to grass, 
stones, leaves, sticks, twigs, or anything in the water with which they come in con- 
tact. A great many of the eggs are observed to be white. In fact, it is the white eggs 
that usually attract attention, as the natural amber-hued eggs are difficult to see in 
the water. Sometimes the eggs are deposited in tidal water — that is to say, where 
the fresh water has been backed up — so that after ebb tide there are may eggs left 
high and dry. Usually, too, during the first of the season the brooks are much higher 
than later, so that after subsidence eggs are left dry. Thousands of eggs are destroyed 
in this way. Atkins was inclined to believe that the unfertilized eggs that he found 
on May 28 in Lawrence Brook were attributable to the pursuit of the fish with dip 
nets, which he felt sure must break up spawning operations. This quite probably was 
the cause of some of the white or unfertilized eggs observed by the present writer. 
The report of the commissioners of fisheries and game of Massachusetts for 1917, 
referring to the great waste of naturally deposited smelt spawn, said (p. 76) : 
At Weir River, Hingham, in 1917, the smelts were depositing spawn on the river bottom at 
the rate of a quarter of an inch each night when there was a good run. Eggs would be found in 
layers from 1 to 2 inches in depth, and in eddies, even from 4 to 6 inches. Under such circumstances 
the top layer only is exposed to the running water and properly fertilized, the remainder being 
wasted. 
In his annual report for 1922, the director of the division of fisheries and game 
of Massachusetts (1922, p. 21), referring to the interrupted runs of smelts in Weir 
River, stated that the deposit of spawn by the first run was very good, and as it was 
not overabundant the eggs had a better chance to hatch. The water was not exces- 
sively high, so there was no great waste of spawn on the ground above normal water 
mark, and probably all had hatched before the second run began. The deposit from 
the second run was so heavy, in many places 3 or 4 inches deep, that doubtless nearly 
all went to waste. 
1 There is no word that adequately describes the process of driving with these alders. A word in common local use among 
the smelt fishermen is “ raunching.” If one has witnessed the procedure one will appreciate the aptness of the word “ raunch,” 
which appears to have been adopted on account of the sound made by the quickly successive, violent thrusts of the alder into 
the water, rather than on account of the original meaning of the word. 
