BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 357 



lusing:, has put the value of the shad at 10 cents apiece. In 1820 they 

 were held iu Wilkes Barre at $18.75 per hundred. Mr. Fowler says 

 they were worth 3 cents or 4 cents apiece. 



COUNTRY SUPPLY AND TRADE. 



Every family along the river having- some means, had its half barrel, 

 barrel, or more of shad salted away each season ; and some smoked 

 shad hanging in their kitchen chimneys; but not only those living 

 immediately along the river were the beneficiaries, but the testimony 

 shows that the country folk came from fifty miles away to get their 

 winter supply, camping along the river's bank, and bringing, in pay- 

 ment, whatever they had of a marketable nature. They came from the 

 New York State line, and from as far east as Easton, bringing maple 

 sugar and salt, and from as far west as Milton, bringing cider, whisky, 

 and the two mixed together as cider royal, and from down the river, 

 and away to the south towards Philadelphia, bringing leather, iron, &c. 



Mr. Isaac S. Osterhout says when quite a boy (1822-'23) he went with 

 a neighbor to Salina, X. Y., after salt, he taking shad and his neighbor 

 whetstones, which they traded for salt. The teams hauling grain to 

 Easton brought back salt ; in good seasons the supply of this latter 

 important item always seems to have been short of the demand. 



The shad, as far as we can learn, appear never to have gone up the 

 West Branch in such quantities as they did up the North Branch, and 

 the same may be said of the Delaware, or else the fish were of inferior 

 quality, for the dwellers from the banks of both of these streams came 

 to Wyoming for their supply of shad. 



Mr^ P. M. Osterhout tells of a firm (Miller & McCord) living at Tunk- 

 hannock, which did quite an extensive business iu shad, sending the 

 cured ones up the river into New York State, and far down the river. 



Mr. Fowler says, " No farmer, or man with a family, was without 

 his barrel, or barrels, of shad the whole year round. Besides furnish- 

 ing food for the immediate inhabitants, people from Mahantango, Blue 

 Mountains, and, in fact, for fifty miles around, would bring salt in tight 

 barrels, and trade it for shad." 



Mr. Harvey says: "Boat« coming up the river used to bring leather, 

 cider, whisky, cider royal, salt, iron, &c., and would take back shad." 



OTHER FISH. 



We do not find that any other deep-sea fish (with the exception of 

 eels) ever came up the river above Northumberland. The "Oswego 

 Bass," " Sas(iuehanna Salmon," " Yellow Bass," " Striped Bass," Susque- 

 hanna Bass" spoken of by the different correspondents appear to be the 

 same fish, which is also sometimes called the wall-eyed pike; an excel- 

 lent fish introduced into the river many y^ars ago from Oswego Lake; 

 they are not now as i)lenty as formerly, though within the past few years 



