136 Notice of the Shad Fisheries of the River Delaware. 
their existence, when they are of all others the most delicate. After 
having spawned, the old fish soon disappear. ‘They are occasionally 
caught indeed in the nets, but they are thin and worthless, and from 
their attenuated condition, they are called by the fishermen “ racers.” 
The young fish remain in the river until towards autumn, by which 
time they have attained the size of small herrings, when they 1 in 
their turn disappear. They are caught in immense numbers in the 
weirs, and racks, and baskets which are constructed in the shallow 
waters above the falls, for the purpose of taking the common river 
fish, and they are so tender as to be destroyed by the least violence. 
These contrivances, so destructive to the young fish, have conse- 
quently become objects of legislative prohibition. 
The destination of these fish, after they quit the fresh water, is 
unknown. I have never yet met with an authentic account of their 
having been caught or even observed at sea, nor have naturalists at- 
tempted to trace their route through the ocean, as in the case of the 
herrings. Their term of life cannot be ascertained, but it is fair to 
infer that they acquire their growth ina year, from the size to which 
the young attain during their short sojourn in our waters, as well 
as from the general uniformity of size observed in each of the seve- 
ralruns. Their average weight may be about seven pounds, but 
individuals are occasionally caught which weigh as high as twelve 
and even thirteen pounds. 
The numbers of shad taken in the Delaware vary in different sea- 
sons. Perhaps it would not be far from the truth to estimate them 
at thirty thousand at each shore fishery. Formerly, when fisheries 
were fewer, the number far exceeded this amount. I have no data 
by which to estimate the number caught by the gilling seines, but 
from the rapid multiplication of these destructive contrivances it must 
be very great. ‘The aggregate amount taken annually by the shore 
seines and the drift nets, is probably not far short of one million five 
hundred thousand, which at seven dollars per hundred, would be 
worth upwards of one hundred thousand dollars. 
The principal market is Philadelphia; but immense numbers are 
vended at the fisheries, to which people flock from all quarters in wag- 
ons and boats. The writer has known sixty and seventy wagons 
supplied in a day, (each perhaps taking at least one hundred,) at the 
Fancy Hill fisheries, six miles below Philadelphia. ‘The great mass 
are salted like mackerel, and chiefly for domestic use. In the fresh 
state they are, in the height of their season, one of the most delicious 
Mt 
Bites, 
Baa peceewee A 
