37 
intrepidity, that none but the long trained surfmen possess. The shad fishing is the 
first active pursuit of the year \ the winter is spent in preparing nets, gathering fuel, 
discussing the affairs of government, national and domestic; the house receives a 
coat of whitewash, both internal and external; stores are distant; the matron is pro¬ 
vided with abundance of substantial food; news arrives that shad have struck the 
Delaware, and quick as if an enemy had struck the Hudson, the fishermen from 
Squan to the Neversink, are in motion for Jersey City. 
A few of our own citizens have a pecuniary interest, as proprietors of nets, poles, 
and other materials required for shad fishing; but the toil and danger consequent on 
the fishing business are all borne by the surf fishermen who annually visit us. The 
business in general is profitable, affording a good interest on the money invested. 
Some of the men have a share of the receipts for their services; such often receive 
one hundred or more dollars each for the season of about six weeks in duration. The 
25th of March is generally the beginning, and the 6th of May is the end of the season 
for gil-nets. 
The farmers of Bergen for one hundred years past have pursued the shad fishery 
in the shallow waters of our Bay with circular nets, called “ fikes this mode of fish¬ 
ing is generally continued till the 1st of June. The fike is a trap, with a funnel- 
shaped mouth, aud resembles a rat-trap, the old-fashioned round one, turned up on its 
side. The fish are led into the fikes by long fences of net-work, and, at intervals, of 
birch brush, to allow boats to pass through without injury. The principle of the fike 
fence is the same as the Indian’s deer or buffalo fence; the victims carelessly follow 
the trail nearest to the bent of their inclinations, until, like a Wall-street broker, 
they get cornered, then turn a cold eye on the w orld, and resign themselves to their 
fate. 
The gil-net is a more refined operation : it requires no “ decoy-ducks,” or “ false 
lights.” Each net is about 20 feet square, and is set at a right angle to the current 
of the river. The shad with a daring, deserving of a better fate, pursues the even te¬ 
nor of its way, head on, until the mesh of the net is strained and tightened just back 
of the gill; the increased dimension at the neck prevents further ingress, and the 
opening gill receiving the mesh, prevents backing out. The mesh usually measures 
12 inches in circumference, so that fish of less than one foot in circumference can 
very easily pass through. The gil-nets are raised every turn of the tide, which oc¬ 
curs four times in about 25 hours. The fikes are raised once in each day when the 
weather is favorable. In stormy or boisterous weather, the Bergen farmer will some¬ 
times allow his fikes to remain two or three days without lifting ; in such cases the 
shad are dead, and not unfrequently the eels, like sneaking foxes, have commenced 
preying upon them. 
If Spurzheim had lived to visit the Connecticut and the Hudson, as the writer 
hoped, and as the Boston papers kindly promised, he might have discovered in the 
shad a very prominent bump of “ philoprogenitiveness.” Else how can we account 
for their aunual pertinacity in running the gauntlet in our rivers, to deposit their 
spawn in fresh and congenial water I The seines are thrown around them at the 
Narrows and at Coney Island; the fikes entrap them in the shoal water, and from 
