BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 361 



of ludiaiis returning from a treaty at Philadelphia landed their canoes, 

 came to her house to borrow her big kettle to cook their dinner in; after 

 building the fire and hanging over the kettle they put in the shad, just 

 as they were taken from the river, with beans, cabbage, potatoes, and 

 onions. My grandfather, David Morehouse, one of the early Connecti- 

 cut settlers, then owned the same farm 1 now own and occupy. I am 

 now in my eighty-seventh year. 

 Yours, very respectfully, 



HEXRY EGBERTS. 



Mount Vernon, Ohio, March 19, 1881. 



Dear Sir : I noticed in the Union-Leader an article in reference to 

 the old shad fisheries of the Susquehanna Eiver, and it brought back 

 to my memory many things that happened in my boyhood days, among 

 which were the old fishermen and the knitting of the shad seines. The 

 seines were knit in sections by the shareholders, each one owning so 

 many yards of the net, and each one receiving his share of fish accord- 

 ing to the number of yards owned. I lived one year with Mr. Pierce 

 Butler, where I learned to knit seines, and have never forgotten it. We 

 used to knit on rainy and cold days and evenings, and when the sec- 

 tions were all done, Dick Covert, with the help of John Scott, would 

 knit them together and hang the same, put on the corks and leads; 

 this was considered quite a trick, and but few would undertake the job. 



I remember I used to go over on the beach on the line of the Butler 

 and Dorrance farms and help the fishermen pick up the shad, and when 

 the luck was good always given one to take home. I remember seeing 

 the shad put in piles on the beach, and after they were all equally di- 

 vided some one would turn his back and the brailman would say, " Who 

 shall have this?" until they all received their share, one pile left out for 

 the poor women. The boats with the seine shipped would row up to 

 the falls, and then hauled out down by the riffles opposite where Dick 

 Covert used to live. I think it was a bad day for the people along the 

 Susquehanna when the shad were prevented from coming up the river; 

 the fish would be worth more to the people than the old canal. You 

 had better buy the canal, put a railroad on the towing-path, burst up 

 the dams, and increase the value of all the flats above the dams, and 

 you would not have as high water at Wilkes Barre, and there would be 

 less damage done to property ; then you would have plenty of shad and 

 all other kinds of fish, and then I think you could afford to send some 

 to your frieuds out West. I got an old fish-dealer here to send to Bal- 

 timore for some shad last week, but they had been too long out of water 

 and too far from home to be good. It used always to be said that there 

 were no shad like the old Susquehanna shad. * * * 



Truly your friend, 



H. C. WILSOK. 



