THE SHAD'S ANNUAL PILGRIMAGE. 823 



In the van of the ascending shoal that extended from bank to 

 bank of the eddying stream were massed the largest and the strong- 

 est fish, the steady, even approach of their densely compacted 

 ranks being betrayed by a nearing ripple, visible at a distance of 

 several hundred yards. From beyond the submerged borders of 

 the continent, whence it had taken its departure, an advance of 

 six or seven hundred miles had been accomplished, with orderly 

 movement and close formation, by this vanguard of the finny 

 host. Day after day, in ocean^s gloom and river's light, through 

 billowy forest and far-rolling meadow, unseen and unmolested of 

 man, the column had struggled onward. Battling with a madly 

 contending current, sometimes halting, sometimes retreating,* and 

 again advancing as the swirling waters became colder or warmer, 

 many of the weaker and smaller fell out of the serried ranks, but 

 the larger and stronger pushed unflaggingly forward to the diffi- 

 cult goal. The upper valley, apparently the bourn of their long 

 and toilsome endeavor, was generally attained about the first of 

 April, the males preceding the roe-burdened fish, successive shoals 

 of each prolonging the fishery for some weeks, the best running 

 eight or nine, and in exceptional instances reaching a weight of 

 eleven and even of twelve pounds. 



After the desolation of the lovely valley by the memorable 

 Indian massacre of 1778, its widowed and fatherless were the ob- 

 jects of much kindly solicitude, and among the thoughtful admin- 

 istrations of the rugged frontiersmen was what became known as 

 the widow's haul. The first Sunday after the season began the en- 

 tire catch of the seine, whether much or little, was set apart for 

 their exclusive benefit, and in 1790 one of these hauls, near Wilkes- 

 barre, resulted in an authenticated total catch of ten thousand 

 shad, and even larger draughts were reported from Nanticoke and 

 Bloomsburg. The damming of the river, conjoined with wasteful 

 methods of capture, utterly extinguished these magnificent fish- 

 eries, of which former abundance a partial renewal is hoped for 

 from the labors of the Pennsylvania Fish Commission. 



The lavish generosity of Nature has everywhere been abused, 

 and the finny treasures of the Delaware have been wasted with 

 the same reckless prodigality and unconcern for the future that 

 have elsewhere marked the fishery. In 1891 the joint action of the 

 commissions of New York and Pennsylvania, in establishing an 

 effective fishway at Lackawaxen dam upon the Delaware, opened 

 an additional hundred miles of that splendid stream to the shad. 



* The chilling of the water, occasioning the retreat of the fish, may be the result of a 

 lowering of the aerial temperature, or of the sudden irruption into the main stream of the 

 ice-bound waters of an upper tributary. In the Hudson shad have been known to retreat 

 fifty and even sixty miles. 



