362 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



men at Trenton, then an important fishing center, packed sturgeon in 

 barrels, shipping them to New York and to Philadelphia by ox team.* 

 But until long after the colonial period, even in these places the roe was 

 regarded as worthless except as feed for hogs or as bait for other fish. 

 Furthermore, few people of the better class would eat the flesh, it being 

 the food of servants and negro slaves. 5 The reason for this prejudice 

 is not recorded, but it is not unlikely that it was similar to the early 

 prejudice against the Connecticut Eiver shad on the ground that it was 

 food for Indians. It is true enough that this objection, though equally 

 applicable, did not prevent the colonists from consuming large quanti- 

 ties of oysters. But the difference in the edible qualities of oyster and 

 sturgeon combined with the no less great abundance of the more highly 

 esteemed shad, might readily explain the inconsistency. At all events, 

 that the strong prejudice did exist is beyond question, hence there seems 

 to be room for some doubt about the importance of this Trenton fishery 

 of the colonial period. 



In the " History of the Fisheries and Fishing Industries of the 

 United States," edited by G. Browne Goode, it is said that a large 

 sturgeon fishery, employing a score of vessels in some years, was carried 

 on in Maine during the early part of the eighteenth century, but was 

 not followed continuously. The account does not state to what use the 

 products were put nor where they found a market. Again in the first 

 quarter of the last century a company of men located on a small 

 island in Casco Bay and began fishing for sturgeon, sending the flesh 

 in kegs to the West Indies. The business was soon suspended for un- 

 known reasons, however, and although there was an abundance of 

 sturgeon in the Kennebec there was no further attempt to utilize them, 

 except for occasional home use, until many years later. 6 



Despite these various experiments at sturgeon fishing in different 

 localities, the strong prejudice against the sturgeon flesh appears to 

 have precluded the possibility of developing any regular market, and so 

 prevented the growth of any important industry, until after 1850. It 

 seems probable that the first approach to a regular and permanent 

 fishery was developed in the Delaware Eiver region. About 1830 and 

 later, three Pennsylvania fishermen made a practise of taking sturgeon 

 with nets and harpoons near the present town of Bristol, Pa. They 

 also did some fishing about Dutch Island, near Bordentown, while on 

 the other side of the Delaware a gill-net fishery was begun in 1853 at 

 Penn's Grove, New Jersey. 7 That the occupation here was not very 

 remunerative, however, can be seen from the fact that the fish rarely 

 sold for more than 30 cents each and often as low as 12y 2 cents. 



About the same time, a third attempt was made in the Kennebec 



'Fishing Gazette, July 21, 1906, p. 679. 



5 U. S. Fish Commission Report, 1899, p. 370. 



8 Goode, Vol. V., Sec. 1, p. 699. 



7 U. S. Fish Commission Report, 1899, p. 370. 



