824 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Since the erection of the obstruction in 1823 the spawning grounds 

 of the upper river had been inaccessible to the fish ; but now, after 

 an absence of nearly seventy years, they are caught at Downs- 

 ville, ]Sr. Y., upon the Popacton Branch, and at Deposit, upon the 

 West Branch, being at their farthest three hundred miles from the 

 sea. Where for two generations they have been unknown exists 

 a promising fishery, which, with provident and careful adminis- 

 tration, would doubtless become as bountiful as of yore. It was 

 above this newly opened fish way that the season's largest shad 

 was caught in 1891. As with the Susquehanna, -the long journey 

 seems to insure the presence of fish of superior size and flavor, 

 and " Delaware River shad " is now a conspicuous sign in the 

 markets of the West. 



In our noble Hudson the construction of dams has not been so 

 disastrous to its fishery, and although the shad formerly ascended 

 to Glens Falls, and even to Saratoga Lake, their spawning 

 grounds are now confined to beds in the river's course between 

 Hudson and the Troy dam. Despite the multiplicity of gill nets, 

 its annual stocking with millions of fry affords a substantial sup- 

 ply, that, however, falls far short of the requirement and is but a 

 poor fraction of the yield of aforetime. Our catch under proper 

 regulations and due access to the upper river could doubtless be 

 greatly enlarged, the last season's product being estimated by the 

 Fish Commission at about eight hundred thousand fish. 



In colonial times shad were so extraordinarily cheap and 

 abundant in the Connecticut Valley that a measure of discredit 

 was attached to their appearance on the table. The possession of 

 the salted fish, to the exclusion of the orthodox and more luxuri- 

 ous pork, argued the poverty of the host, and, even when fresh, 

 it was considered vulgar fare, inasmuch as shad sold for years 

 as low as a cent apiece. The denser peopling of the valley and 

 the consequent decline of the catch naturally occasioned a higher 

 appreciation of the once-despised fish, especially among those 

 with whom cheapness is synonymous with worthlessness. The 

 Connecticut is a river of smaller volume than the streams already 

 discussed, and its banks are thickly populated circumstances 

 tending to aggravate the difiBculties of restocking, the principal 

 obstacle probably being, there as elsewhere, the rapacity and im- 

 providence of the fishermen. About 1870, when the effort of the 

 commissioners was begun, they derided their undertaking, but a 

 few years later the whilom scorners begged them to desist, alleging 

 that the abundance was so great that they could get no due re- 

 muneration for their catch. The New York wholesale price, they 

 complained, was reduced to three dollars per hundred fish, and 

 they argued that it was useless and a scandalous waste of the 

 people's money to hatch fish beyond the absorptive capacity of 



