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