THE FISHERIES OF THE SUSQUEHANNA RIVER. 649 



Mr. Van Kirk gives from 3 to 9 pounds as the weight of the shad caught at the fisheries in 

 Northumberland and Montour Counties. 



Mr. Fowler says he has assisted in catching thousands weighing 8 and 9 pounds at the fish- 

 eries in Columbia County. 



Mr. Harvey, speaking of the Luzerne County shad, says : " Some used to weigh 8 and 9 

 pounds, and I saw one weighed on a wager which turned the scales at 13 pounds." 



Major Fassett, speaking of those caught in Wyoming County, says: "The average weight 

 was S pounds, the largest 12 pounds." 



Dr. Horton says of the shad caught in Bradford County, that he has seen them weighing !) 

 pounds ; ordinarily the weight was from 4 to 7 pounds. 



PRICE. The price of shad varied, according to their size, from id. to 25 cents, depending of 

 course upon their scarcity or abundance, and as some of our correspondents remember the price 

 in years when it was high, and others in those when there was a great plenty of fish, there arise 

 what appear to be conflicting statements in their letters. 



At the town meeting held at Wilkes-Barre, April 21, 1778, prices were set on articles of sale, 

 inter alia, as follows: Winter-fed beef, per pound, Id.; tobacco, per pound, 9d.; eggs, per dozen, 

 Sd.; shad apiece, 6d. At one time they brought but id. apiece. A bushel of salt would at any 

 time bring a hundred shad. 



At the time the dam was built they brought from 10 to 12 cents. On the day of the big haul 

 Mr. Harvey says they sold for a cent apiece (Mr. Dana says 3 coppers). 



Mr. Isaac S. Osterhout remembers a Mr. Walter Green who gave twenty barrels of shad for 

 a good Durham cow. 



Mr. Roberts says that in exchanging for maple sugar one good shad was worth a pound 01 

 sugar ; when sold for cash shad" were worth 12 cents apiece. 



Major Fassett says the market price of the shad was $6 per hundred. 



Dr. Horton says the shad, according to size, were worth from 10 to 25 cents. 



Mr. Hollenback, in calculating the value of fisheries near Wyalusing, has put the value of 

 the shad at 10 cents apiece. In 1820 they were held in Wilkes-Barre at $18.75 per hundred. Mr. 

 Fowler says they were worth 3 cents or 4 cents apiece. 



COUNTRY SUPPLY AND TRADE. Every family along the river having some means had its half 

 barrel, barrel, or more of shad salted away each season, and some smoked shad hanging in their 

 kitchen chimneys ; not only those living immediately along the river were the beneficiaries, but 

 the testimony shows that the country folk came from 50 miles away to get their winter supply, 

 camping along the river's bank, and bringing, in payment, whatever they had of a marketable 

 nature. They came from the New York State line, and from as far east as Easton, bringing maple 

 sugar and salt, and from as far west as Milton, bringing cider, whisky, and the two mixed together 

 as cider royal, and from down the river, and away to the south towards Philadelphia, bringing 

 leather, iron, &c. 



Mr. Isaac S. Osterhout says when quite a boy (1822-'23) he went with a neighbor to Salina, 

 N. Y., after salt, he taking shad and his neighbor whetstones, which they traded for salt. The 

 teams hauling grain to Easton brought back salt; in good seasons the supply of this latter im- 

 portant item always seems to have been short of the demand. 



The shad, as far as we can learn, appear never to have gone up the West Branch in such 

 quantities as they did up the North Branch, and the same may be said of the Delaware, or else 

 the fish were of inferior quality, for the dwellers from the banks of both of these streams came to 

 Wyoming for their supply of shad. 



