[3] EAKLY SHAD FISHERIES OF SUSQUEHANNA RIVER. 621 



the Chapin Island fishery ; the next was at the bend at Skinner's Eddy j 

 the next was at Browutown, in Bradford County ; the next was at Ing- 

 ham's Island; the next was at the mouth of Wyal using Creek ; two 

 miles further up was one at Terrytowu; the next and last that we have 

 any record of was at Standing Stone, about six miles below Towauda. 



Thus it will be seen that between Northumberland and Towanda 

 there were about forty permanent fisheries. 



Money value. — Our county records only go back to 1787. We 

 spent a whole day in searching the first volumes, in hopes that we might 

 find some entries of transfers of fishing rights, but our search was 

 fruitless. We have, however, found among the papers of Caleb Wright 

 a bill of sale of a half interest in a fishery between Shickshinny and 

 Nanticoke, called the " Dutch fishery." The price paid was £20, " lawful 

 money of Pennsylvania," equivalent to $53.33.* 



Jameson Harvey says that Jonathan Hunlock's interest in the Hun- 

 lock fishery was worth from five to six hundred dollars per annum ; it 

 was a half interest. Henry Roberts says a right in a fishery was worth 

 from ten to twenty-five dollars. Major Fassett's father was one of 

 eleven owners in the Sterliog Island fishery, and his interest was valued 

 at $100. 



Mr. Hollenback's information on the money value of the different fish- 

 eries is by far the most valuable. He says the Standing Stone fishery 

 was worth from $300 to $400 per annum ; the Terry town fishery was 

 worth about the same ; the Wyalusing Creek fishery was worth about 

 $250 per annum ; the Ingham Island fishery $50 less ; the Browntowu 

 and Skinner's Eddy fisheries about $150 per annum each. 



Jameson Harvey says : " The widow Stewart, at the Stewart fishery, 

 used often to take from $30 to $40 of a night for her share of the haul." 



The data bearing upon this point are decidedly unsatisfactory, as they 

 would only give to the forty fisheries an annual value of about $12,000, 

 a large amount for those days, yet one we believe to be too small. The 

 next topic, the "catch," should be taken with this one to form a basis 

 for calculation. 



Catch. — At the eight fisheries near Northumberland large numbers 

 of shad were taken ; three hundred was a common haul ; some hauls 

 ran from three to five thousand. The Rockafeller fishery, just below 

 Danville (about the year 1820), gave an annual yield of from three to 

 four thousand, worth from 12^ cents to 25 cents apiece. 



Mr. Fowler says that the fishery just above Berwick was one of the 

 most productive, and that he has assisted there in catching "thousands 

 upon thousands," but does not give the average annual ;yield. He also 

 says that at the Tuckahoe fishery " many thousands were caught night 

 and day in early spring," and at the Webb and Boon fisheries the hauls 

 were immense. At the latter they got so many at a haul that they 



* Caleb Wright's sou received as his share of one night's fishing at this fishery 

 1,900 shad. 



