In a former letter I mentioned the relishes of salt fish usual at
breakfast and supper in this country; they are chiefly of shad, a name
given them by the first settlers, from their having _some resemblance_ to
that fish, though in fact they are very different; and indeed this is the
case with almost every fish, bird, and other animal these Anglo-Americans
took it into their heads to christen. It is a great pity they did not call
those peculiar to this continent by their _indian_ names; and this should
also have been the case with mountains, lakes, rivers, &c. What man of any
taste will not prefer the sonorous sounds of Susquana, Patapsico,
Allegany, Raphanock, Potomack, and other _indian_ titles, to such stupid
appellations as Cape Cod, Mud Island, cat-fish, sheep's head-fish, whip
poor will, &c.?
But to return to the _shad_, if it must be so called; it is an excellent
fish, and comes up the rivers in prodigious shoals, in the months of April
and May, to spawn. The largest nets used in this fishery are on the
Delaware, where that river is from one to two miles wide. These nets are
from one hundred and fifty to three hundred yards long. The greatest hawl
ever known was upwards of nine thousand, from four to nine pounds per
fish.
The revolution has not yet done away a fanatical law passed by the
quakers, prohibiting the catching of these fish on a sunday; which,
considering the short time they remain in the river, is highly impolitic.
There are thirteen fisheries within ten miles of Philadelphia; allowing
only eight sundays in the season, and ten thousand shads lost in each of
the twenty-four hours, a very moderate calculation, the aggregate loss to
Philadelphia, and the adjacent country, is eighty thousand fish, weighing
five pounds each, on an average. I say _loss_; for the return of the
fish is the same now as it was a hundred and thirty years ago, when only a
few dozen were taken in the season by the Indians.
There is also a small fish which comes up the rivers with the shad; the
shoals this year have been uncommonly large; upwards of ten thousand have
been taken at one hawl. Like the shad, it takes salt well; and, from it's
having some resemblance to a _herring_, they give it that name, though
very different from the herring which visits the shores of Europe. I
believe there is no instance of a herring running a hundred and fifty
miles up a fresh water river, or existing at all in water perfectly fresh.
The above particulars you may depend upon; they were communicated to me by
Mr. West, who is proprietor of the largest shad-fisheries on the Delaware.
This river also abounds in cat-fish, perch, jack, eels, and a great
variety of others; above all, in sturgeon; which are frequently caught by
accident in the shad-nets, and either boiled for their oil, or suffered to
rot on the, shores, being very seldom sent to market: when this is the
case, they are sold for a mere trifle, chiefly to emigrants. The Americans
have conceived a violent antipathy to this fish. I recollect no instance
of seeing it at their tables. They have every externals appearance of the
european sturgeon, but in other respects must be _very different_, or
the Americans lose one of the best fisheries in the world.
Enclosed is an extract from general Lincoln's letter on the migration of
fish. He endeavours to prove, that river fish, after their passage to the
sea, whatever time they remain there, always return to the original waters
in which they were spawned, unless some unnatural obstructions are thrown
in their way.
Yours, &c.
In an old History of Bermuda, published in the year 1661, is the following
passage:--
"There is great store of fish, which being mostly unknown to the English,
they gave them such names as best _liked_ them, as _porgie-fish,
hog-fish, yellow-tails, cony-fish_, &c."