PLATE LVil. 
sixpence. They are usually eaten fried with parsley, or stewed. 
^lr. Pennant speaks of the Severn Shad as a delicate fish at the time 
its first appearance in that river : in that part which flows by Glo- 
Ces ter, they are taken in nets in plenty, and sell at times dearer 
than Salmon. This writer tells us the Severn Shad is sometimes 
sent to London, where the fishmongers distinguish them from those 
°f the Thames kind by the French name of Alose. 
The flesh of the Shad is not considered wholesome by some people. 
Rt Russia, where they appear in great abundance in the Wolga, and 
* 
0 ther rivers, they are held in such abhorrence, that when they are 
strapped with other fish in the nets, the fishermen throw them back 
a gain into the water. They call the Shad Beschenaja ryba, or the 
enraging fish, having prepossessed themselves with the silly notion, 
that it enrages even to madness those who eat of it. As Hasselquist 
delates, it is found in the Mediterranean near Smyrna, and on the 
coast of Egypt near Rosetta. In the months of December and 
January, this fish, he tells us, ascends the Nile as far as Cairo, where 
1C is caught, and dressed in a particular manner with a stuffing of pot 
Marjoram ; and the fish thus prepared for food, he assures us, will 
v cry nearly intoxicate the eater. The Arabs are fond of this Fish, 
"which they cure by first smoking them, and then drying them in 
the air ; they are eaten with dates. 
There is a smaller sort of Shad sometimes accidentally taken about 
the entrance of the River Thames, which the fishermen consider as 
a kind of herring. This we have received from correspondents at 
different seasons of the year, and on the most attentive comparison, 
ar e convinced they are only the common Shad, not yet arrived at full 
maturity. The fishermen have the superstitious notion, that every 
