370 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Mr. Larzalere states that when he was a young man one night he, with a number of 

 young men and women, went rowing on the Delaware in two boats. While proceed- 

 ing up the river only a few feet apart a large sturgeon, 6 or 7 feet long, jumped from 

 the water and nearly capsized one of the boats, and the occupants were thoroughly 

 drenched and frightened. The same gentleman also stated that William Stockton, 

 the father of the Rev. Thomas H. Stockton, for a space chaplain of the House of 

 Representatives at Washington, was at one time out boating when a large sturgeon 

 actually jumped into the boat and was secured. 



Mr. John Fenuimore related the following : 



"Many years ago there was a little steamboat which plied Ihe Delaware above 

 Philadelphia called the Sally. On each side, near her bows, were two large round 

 windows, which, in the summer time, were often open. One day when the Sally 

 was on one of its tcips up the river, a large sturgeon in jumping made such a leap 

 that it passed clear through one of these windows and landed in the vessel, where it 

 was killed." 



Stories like the foregoing are (juite common and many of them are well authenti- 

 cated, and they serve as nothing else can to illustrate how numerous this species of 

 fish were in the Delaware River, for until recent years the sturgeon seemed to be 

 little esteemed by the people living along this great stream. Nearly all the old 

 fishermen say that in their boyhood days few ate sturgeon except the colored i)eople, 

 though occasionally a family would fry a few steaks and serve them with cream. 

 The roe was considered worthless except as bait with which to catch eels and perch 

 or to feed to the hogs. From 3 to 4 cents a pound were the best prices that could be 

 obtained retail for the meat, and it was not often that more than 25 or 30 cents 

 could be had for a whole fish. 



Mr. John Fenniniore made a practice of fishing for sturgeon with nets at Dunks 

 Ferry, now Bristol, in the latter part of the twenties and until about 1835. Mr. Van- 

 schiver and Mr. McElroy, two other fishermen of that neighborhood, also carried on 

 the same business. They used a 12-inch mesh and diew their nets over the bar near 

 the Pennsylvania side, a favorite spot for the sturgeon. Sometimes 25 or 30 were 

 taken at a single haul. The fish brought very little money, however, seldom more 

 tlian 30 cents apiece, and sometimes as low as 12^ cents. Mr. Williams says that a 

 favorite method with many fishermen of catching sturgeon in the month of August, 

 prior to 1835, was with the harpoon, and that the favorite s^jot for this method was 

 about Dutch Isl.'ind, near Bordeutowu. 



The exact time when the fishery for sturgeon was taken up to any- 

 considerable extent is doubtful. Mr. Benedict Blohm, of Penns Grove, 

 N. J., was undoubtedly one of the earliest to engage in the business 

 with gill nets, and was the first to put up cavdar, which he did about 

 the year 1853. For a number of years the business struggled along, 

 owing to the low price received for caviar and the prejudice ])revailing 

 against the use of the flesh. After 1870 the business expanded very 

 rapidly. Previous to the use of special gill nets for sturgeon many were 

 taken in the shore seine iisheries, 117 being obtained in one haul of 

 the Fancy Hill Fishery in Gloucester County in the early seventies. 

 Very little use was made of these for a long time; but, as people began 

 to develop a taste for the sturgeon flesh, the fish was sold to peddlers, 

 who dressed them and peddled the meat throughout the surrounding 

 country. Of late years, however, but few are taken in the seines. 



The smoking of sturgeon flesh was begun on a small scale in New 

 York City about 1857, and later in Philadelphia. This has caused a 

 fairly steady demand for the flesh at a remunerative price, and has 

 been a large factor in the great develoi^ment of the industry. 



