254 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



obstruction, it was subject to the common-law provision and must 

 build a fishway. The fish way was completed in 1873, it being after the 

 Brackett plan, a modification of the Foster fishway. It is one of the 

 largest and most expensive ever constructed, being 440 feet in length, 

 with a general inclination of 1 foot in 15, divided into compartments 

 or bays by means of ±-shaped partitions that extend at right angles 

 from the sides, causing the water to wind through such a long, cir- 

 cuitous course that it actually rnns about 1,500 feet before it emerges 

 at the lower end. As the height of the dam is .30 feet, the fall of the 

 water averages about 1 foot in 50 with little momentum, but it does 

 not appear tbat shad have ever passed above this fishway in quantities. 



During the colonial period shad were abundant in the lower half of 

 Connecticut Eiver, ascending as far as Bellows •Falls, 170 miles from 

 Long Island Sound, where the abrupt descent of the river iirevented 

 further progress. They easily passed Turner Falls, 50 miles below, 

 several thousand being taken there in a single day with dip nets. 

 The first artificial obstruction to their progress was the dam at Turner 

 Falls, erected in 1798. This obstruction prevented shad from passing 

 that point, and it also seriously aftected the spawning of salmon in the 

 river, but, as there were areas below Turner Falls suitable for shad 

 spawning, the run of this species below that point was not apparently 

 injured. 



In 184i) the dam at Holyoke was completed, cutting off 36 miles more 

 from the upper limit of the shad run, including many spawning-grounds. 

 The effect of this is shown distinctly in the reliable accounts of the 

 catch made at the Parsonage seine fishery, near the mouth of the river. 

 The average annual yield of shad from 1827 to 183G was 10,376; during 

 the succeeding ten j-ears it was 9,332, the slight decline being perhaps 

 attributable to increased fishing at near-by points. The erection of the 

 Holyoke dam in 1849 x^revented the fish from ascending to the upper 

 waters, and as they retreated down the river they were taken more 

 abundantly than formerly. The average yearly catch by the Parsonage 

 seine in the five years following the erection of the dam was 19,490 shad ; 

 during the next ten years (1854-1803) the average was but 8,364, and 

 for the following six years (1864-1869) it further decreased to 4,482 

 annually, less than one-half of the former yield. 



For many years preceding 1881 the regulations of Massachusetts and 

 Connecticut in reference to the Connecticut River shad fisheries were 

 similar, a close season beginning Juae 21, and an interdiction prevailing 

 against the use of nets with less than 5-inch mesh. An increased use 

 of pound nets at the mouth of the river aroused much antagonism 

 among the up-river fishermen, especially those in Massachusetts, and 

 resulted in the spring of 1881 in an enactment by the legislature of that 

 State extending the open season to July 1 and permitting the use of 

 nets with 2-in('h mesh. The effect of this enactment is well shown in 

 the table on page 256. In 1880, by the use of 5 inch mesh, only 7,727 

 shad were taken in that ijortior. of the Connecticut situated in Massa- 



