230 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 

 DELAWARE BAY AND RIVER. 



The sources of the Delaware are in the high plateau of central New 

 York, in Delaware and Schoharie counties, at an elevation of over 1,800 

 feet above sea level. Eighty miles below the headwaters it becomes 

 the eastern boundary of Pennsylvania, and by a breach, known as the 

 "Delaware Water Gap," it passes through the Kittatiuny Mountains 

 at a distance of liOO miles below its source. It crosses the escarpment 

 line near Trenton, the head of navigation, 280 miles from its head- 

 waters and 133 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. From Trenton to Fort 

 Delaware, a distance of about 75 miles, it is a broad, navigable stream 

 from i to 2 miles in width, supporting considerable commerce below 

 Philadelphia. Near Fort Delaware it increases in width, and at some 

 indefinite and much-disputed point it merges into Delaware Bay, which 

 is merely a continuation of the estuary of the river. This body of 

 water separates the States of Pennsylvania and Delaware from New 

 Jersey, and the fisheries are prosecuted by the residents of those three 

 States. 



The i^resent chapter covers all the shad fisheries of Delaware Eiyer 

 and Bay, including those which are prosecuted by residents of Pennsyl- 

 vania and Delaware, as well as those of New Jersey. These fisheries 

 are the most extensive in America, the annual yield ranging between 

 3,000,000 and 4,000,000, being several times greater than on any other 

 river on the coast. In 1896 the catch numbered 3,882,024, of which 

 3,003,595 were taken by residents of New Jersey, 550,640 by residents 

 of Pennsylvania, and 328,389 by Delawareans. In describing the shad 

 fisheries of this body of water, it is most convenient to divide it into 

 three sections, the first covering Delaware Bay; the second, the tide- 

 water portion of the river from the head of the bay to the fall line at 

 Scudder Falls; and the third from the escarpment line to the head 

 of the river. Of the total yield in these waters in 1890, 1,103,821 were 

 caught in the bay, 2,602,628 in the tidal portion of the river from the 

 head of the bay to Scudder Falls, and 176,175 from the section above 

 Scudder Falls. 



The following table shows the number of persons employed in each 

 branch of the shad fisheries of Delaware Bay and Eiver during 1896 : 



