THE SHAD'S ANNUAL PILGRIMAGE. 825 



tlie markets. Tlie general introduction of speedier and of in- 

 creased transportation facilities, of refrigerator cars, and of cold 

 storage warehouses soon greatly extended, not only the area but 

 also the period, of consumption. Thus it happened that a wider 

 and more enduring market sjjeedily abated the surplus that the 

 fishermen bewailed a surplus which, under an ever-increasing 

 demand, ere long dwindled to a deficiency. The existence in a 

 densely populated territory of a remunerative fishery, free and 

 open to all comers, conjoined with the adoption of improved de- 

 vices of wholesale capture, created a lamentable dearth that the 

 utmost effort availed little to relieve. 



The river at its mouth discharges its current to the westward, 

 so that along the Connecticut shore of the sound a strip of fresh 

 water extends a dozen miles before mingling with the salt sea. 

 This belt is practically a portion of the river, and the fish, ap- 

 proaching, probably, from the eastern entrance of the sound, enter 

 the strip at its terminus; then, retracing their course, pursue their 

 way through the fresh water to the actual mouth of the river, 

 within which the law prohibits the construction of poun'd nets. 

 These formidable engines of finny destruction were ranged at short 

 intervals, across the route of the fish, in the fresh- water belt, some 

 of them extending over a mile into the sound. In constant opera- 

 tion, ingulfing fish every hour of the day and night without inter- 

 mission or cessation, the natural result was the capture, in the 

 sound waters, of the larger portion of the run of shad. When the 

 sorely harried fish finally entered the river, they were beset with 

 scores of gill nets, such as we are familiar with in the Hudson, and 

 which were stretched at short distances as far as Essex, beyond 

 which the poor remnant encountered the sweep nets, which one 

 after another were dragged across the river as fast as possible. 

 In a few years the annual catch declined from nearly half a mil- 

 lion to a mere fraction, and at present will average but little more 

 than thirty thousand, the commissioners of late having found it 

 useless to stock with liberality. 'The State of Massachusetts pro- 

 cured the erection at Holyoke dam of a thoroughly serviceable 

 fishway, thereby opening the upper river to the shad, and, besides, 

 freely colonized with fry the portion that she controlled. The 

 effort was vain, the expenditure useless, and the complaints of her 

 Fish Commission to that of Connecticut that the shad are debarred 

 from her waters have failed to effect material redress. The offend- 

 ing fishermen, however, contend that the lack of shad is due to 

 river pollution, to the diversion of the current by the construction 

 of the Government breakwater at its mouth, and to other causes 

 not subject to their influence or control. 



The early settlers in Massachusetts found immense numbers of 

 shad in the various rivers of the colony, and, following the Indian 



