40 Report of the American 



able run of shad above it so that a very fair catch was the consequence. 

 This circumstance helped the reputation of the fishwaj no doubt, nor has 

 that fact ever been denied. 



In 1868 the catch was not so great, for there was no abrasion, but the 

 catch exceeded the average of former years, and so matters continued, 

 the catch always increasing till 1871-2, when the extraordinary catch 

 estimated at some 100,000 as against ten, twenty and thirty thousand iu 

 ordinary seasons occurred on the Susquehanna below the dam. 



Fishing was prohibited by the law of 1866 within half a mile of the 

 dam, but local pressure in the Legislature repealed the prohibition, and 

 since 1867 fishing has been allowed nominally to within 200 j^ards of the 

 fishway, but actualh^ there has been no prohibition as to distance, so that 

 it has endured the most adverse circumstances. A good catch, how- 

 ever, was made above the dam in 1871-2, and from that year onward the 

 river has been regarded as having been partially reinstated in its fisheries. 

 New " batteries" have been prepared below Columbia by men who, 

 having but small capital, would not have invested in them had the}' not 

 believed that the chances for remuneration were verj' much improved. 



At Newport, on the Juniata, fifty or sixty miles above the dam, since 

 1867, a stead}' increase has been observed, and in these neighborhoods 

 no one believes otherwise than that shad in greater or less numbers 

 may be confidently^ expected every year. 



At Newport, in 1872, the catch was quite small, but that is the only 

 3'ear since 1867 in which a decided increase has not been observed there. 

 This, however, arose from local causes. The river at their fisheries was 

 too low during the whole season. The fishermen saw the fish but could 

 not catch them. But the series of increments met with no real break, 

 for at Sunbury, above a second dam, and just below a third one, on the 

 Susquehanna, the extraordinary catch of 2,000 was made in 1872. In 

 which year there was no abrasion of the Columbia Dam, and 2,000 repre- 

 sents a large multiple of the number caught near Sunbury at an}' period 

 in the quarter of a century preceding 1867. 



There are facts current amongst the people of the upper Susquehanna 

 and the Juniata, and which are implicitly believed, so much so that 

 whereas the restoration movement commenced in utter incredulity and 

 ridicule, the Legislature now finds itself encouraged by its constituencies 

 riparian to the great rivers in appropriating mone}' for carrying out im- 

 provements which have already borne such good fruit. People of Sun- 

 bur}' have stated to the undersigned that previous to 1867 a shad of the 

 upper Susquehanna would fetch in their markets always more than a dol- 

 lar and sometimes as high as three, four and five dollars, whereas they 

 look for them now every spring and scarcely have to pay more than a 

 dollar a pair for them. 



