A Path of Fish
The alewife runs in Patten Stream are a shadow of what they once were, but they still have the power to awe.
By Susan Hand Shetterly
An alewife is a beautiful fish. Its back is dark blue, its belly, silver. It is laterally compressed, deep from dorsal fin to the sharp belly scales that can slice the skin on the palm of your hand, and as narrow from gill to gill as a pack of cards, a perfect shape to move up through down-rushing water. Put your hand in a fast stream, your fingers pointed into the current, and feel the water part. You can't do it with your palm catching the flow, but it is easy when you aim your fingers upstream, the way an alewife aims its snout.
