[13] EARLY SHAD FISHERIES op SUSQUEHAJ^NA RIVER. 631 



miles) from tidewater to the Wyoming Valley, the flavor of the shad 

 was very much improved by contact with fresh water. The Susque- 

 hanna shad were superior to the Delaware, the Potomac, the Connect- 

 icut, or the !N^orth River shad. The reason generally given was their 

 being so long in fresh water, which imparted to the fish a freshness and 

 richness not found in the shad of other rivers. Then, none but the strong, 

 healthy shad could stem the current and reach the upper waters of 

 our beautiful river. 



Miller and McCord cured and put up annually shad for the market. 

 They boated down the river a large quantity for the times, and sold to 

 the people on the lower Susquehanna. They also boated shad up the 

 river as far as Xewton, now Elmira ; from thence they were carted to 

 the head of Seneca Lake, a distance of twenty miles, and from there 

 were taken to Geneva and other towns in what was then called the lake 

 country, and sold. 



There was a fishery on tbe upper point of the island opposite McKune's 

 Station, on the Lehigh Valley Railroad. This island was known by the 

 early settlers as one of the Three Brothers. There was also an impor- 

 tant fishery at Hunt's Ferry, about five miles above Tuukhaunock. Here 

 large quantities of shad were caught every spring. This fishery was 

 owned by twenty rights, ten fishing at alternate nights. There was 

 also another fishery at Black Walnut, below Skinner's Eddy. At all 

 these fisheries more or less Oswego bass were caught, called down the 

 river Susquehanna salmon, a most excellent fish, but they are now 

 nearly extinct. The river ought to be restocked with that same species. 

 They are a fine-flavored fish, solid in meat, and grow to 12 or 15 imunds 

 in weight. The late George M. HoUenbeck, esq., of Wilkes Barre, told 

 me that this bass was brought from the Oswego Lake and put into the 

 Susquehanna at Newton, now Elmira. They were called by theoldset- 

 tlers swager bass. Since the building of the dams across the Susque- 

 hanna there have been no shad caught above the Xanticokedam. These 

 dams also largely obstruct the passage of bass and other food fish up 

 river. The Susquehanna is really one of the finest streams for fish in 

 the United States — the water pure, the bottom rocky and pebbly, afford- 

 ing abundant means for spawning and rearing the young fish. The 

 obstruction to the free passage of fish up the river ought to be re- 

 moved. 



Maj John Fas«ett, of Windham Township, one of the oldest citizens 

 of that town, as w?s his father before him, was written to on the sub- 

 ject of the early shad fisheries from Hunt's Fe^^^ to Wyalusing. He 

 mentions the one at Hunt's Ferry, also at Black Walnut, and others 

 at difl'erent points up the river as far as Wyalusing. He says his father 

 owned a right in the fishery at Black Walnut, which he valued at $100; 

 here were large numbers of shad caught, which were valued at 6 cents 

 each, and would weigh from 6 to 12 pounds each. The largest one ho 

 saw weighed was 12 pounds; the writer hereof thought he had got it 



