24 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



proviso. That proviso is, that the owners of dams that obstruct the ascent of fish 

 shall place in each a fish way or fishways, so constructed as to afford ready passage- 

 way for anadromous and other fishes, whose habits incline them to ascend to the 

 upper waters of the stream. The penalty for the violation of this statute is heavy, but 

 like so many of the other fishery laws, its commands are more honored in the breach 

 than in the observance. 



The hurtful influences of these obstructions, where the law in regard to them is 

 not respected, can readily be imagined. Even where there is compliance the compen- 

 sation is generally only partial. A practical illustration of this is found in the Sus- 

 quehanna River, which once abounded for several hundred miles of its length with 

 shad, which for size and quality were unsurpassed. A dam was erected across that 

 river at the town of Columbia, and thereafter the presence of shad in the waters above 

 it became almost unknown. Prior to its erection your speaker saw more shad taken 

 a mile above its location at a single haul of a seine than were afterward caught in the 

 river northward in any entire season. This condition of things prevailed until the 

 State fishery commissioners, some six or seven years ago, ordered the placing of several 

 of the latest improved fishways in the dam. Since then some shad have been taken 

 in the upper waters of the river, but it is questionable whether, even with these added 

 facilities for the ascent of shad, the annual product has been materially increased, 

 though better results are confidently anticipated; but there is little room for hoping 

 that the former noted fecundity of the Susquehanna will ever be restored. 



Fish baskets. — In the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers, and in nearly all of their 

 principal tributaries and doubtless in many other rivers of rapid flow, fish baskets 

 have been and still are to be found, than which it is impossible to conceive of any 

 device more destructive to anadromous and migratory fishes. Through the energetic 

 efforts of the Pennsylvania State fishery commissioners, they have been very nearly 

 exterminated in the first of the two rivers named. Those baskets with their diverging 

 wing walls, which obstruct the progress of the young fish seaward, compel them to 

 seek passage at the point where the walls converge and where the basket is placed. 

 Instinctively, the fish press onward and are often taken by thousands in the deadly 

 trap. Instances have been known in the upper Delaware, where so many young shad 

 were intercepted in fish baskets — of course, perishing there — that farmers hauled them 

 away by wagon loads, using them for fertilizing purposes on their fields. 



It has been estimated that before the interference of the State authorities as many 

 young shad were destroyed through the agency of fish baskets each season as twice 

 equaled the entire catch of mature shad in the Delaware. 



Fyke or hoop nets. — Scarcely less destructive is the fyke net, which corresponds 

 in character and intent with the fish basket, but because of the shortness of its wings 

 is adapted only to smaller streams. Placed at the mouth or in the narrow channels 

 of minor streams, it commands the entire passageway, and of course captures every- 

 thing in the shape of a fish that attempts a descent. 



The fyke net, like the fish basket, is strictly prohibited by law, but being portable 

 it is readily placed in position at convenient times, and as readily removed and hidden 

 away, if there is reason to anticipate a visit from any of the authorities. Detection, 

 even if intended, is therefore difficult. 



Betterton, at the mouth of the Sassafras Kiver, on the eastern shore of Maryland, 

 a few years ago was celebrated for the size, quality, and quantity of its white perch. 



