(Alosa menhaden. Storer, Massachusetts Report.) A fish of the herring kind abounding in the waters of New England, and as far south as Chesapeake Bay. It is also known by the names of Bony-fish, White-fish, Hardhead, Mossbonker, and Panhagen. In Massachusetts and Rhode Island, they are called Menhaden; in New York, Mossbonkers and Skippaugs. They are caught in immense quantities and used as manure, chiefly for Indian corn. Dr. DeKay, in his report on the fishes of New York, states that he has known of an instance when "84 waggon-loads, or in other words, 168,000 of these fish were taken at a single haul" of the seine.--Nat. Hist. of New York.
One day last week, Messrs. Davidson and Russel drew in at a single haul, on Mr. Hallock's shore, west side of New Haven harbor, two millions of white fish, as nearly as could be estimated, weighing on an average about three quarters of a pound each. The total weight of the haul, therefore, was about 1,500,000 lbs. or 750 tons! It was the greatest haul of fish ever made in that harbor, and we suspect it will not be easy to match it anywhere. The farmers from the neighboring country were engaged three or four days in carrying them off in immense cartloads. They sell at 50 to 75 cents the 1000. The fishermen are much indebted to a bevy of porpoises, who drove the white fish into the harbor, helping themselves meanwhile, no doubt, to a very large number.--Journal of Commerce, May 16, 1848.