ILLUSTRATIONS. 115 



son one hundred and sixty miles ; one of them, however, returned and grounded 

 about forty-eight miles from the sea shore, where four others, that same year, 

 had also stranded and perished ; the other grounded about one hundred and 

 seventy-two miles np. Notwithstanding the inhabitants had obtained a great 

 quantity of train oil from it, yet by reason of the swiftness of the current at that 

 lime, the whole river for two or three weeks acquired an oily taste, and exhib- 

 ited an unctuous appearance, aud the noxious effluvia were offensive eight miles 

 off. Here it appeares that in one spring, six large whales had ascended the 

 Hudson ; and they were, no doubt, allured in that direction by the multitude of 

 fish. A whale has recently ascended the Delaware as far as the falls at Trenton, 

 The Hudson is now not only a steril river, but all its tributary streams partake of 

 the same defect. Kalm says, that several gentlemen and merchants of New- 

 York, between fifty and sixty years of age, told him in June, 1749, that during 

 their lives they had plainly found several kinds offish decrease in number eve 

 ry year, and that they could not get near so many fish now as they could for- 

 merly. Kalm further says, " At the first -settlement, the bays, rivers, and 

 brooks, had such quantities offish, that at one draught in the morning, they 

 i-aught as many as a horse was able to carry home. But at present things are 

 greatly altered, and they often work in vain all the night long, with all their fish- 

 ing tackle. The causes of this decrease of fish, are partly the same with those of 

 the diminution of birds, being of late caught by a greater variety of contrivan- 

 ces, and in different manners than before. The numerous mills on the rivers, 

 and brooks, likewise contributed to it in part, for it has been observed here 

 that the fish go up the river in order to spawn in shallow water, but when they 

 laeet with works that prevent their proceeding, they turn back, and never come 

 again." Independently of these causes, we know that fishes change their places 

 of resort in the ocean, probably being frightened away by fishes of prey. " It 

 has never been formerly known," according to the same writer, u that cod fish 

 were to be caught at Cape Henlopen ; they were always caught at the mouth 

 of the Delaware, but at present they are numerous in the former places. 



Dr. Belknap says, that the basse was .formerly taken in great plenty in the 

 river Pascataqua, but that by the injudicious use of nets in the winter, this fish- 

 ery was almost destroyed ; that the salmon formerly frequented the same river, 

 but that the numerous dams built across its branches, have obstructed the course 

 of this valuable fish, and that it has for many years totally forsaken the river. 



At a place called Columbia, on the Seneca river, twelve miles from Three 

 River Point, a rolling dam was made over the river, and a canal of one hundred 

 rods was cut, and two locks made in order to facilitate the navigation, which wa 

 greatly impeded, and at sometimes rendered impracticable by two shallow rapid* 

 called M. Harris and Jurist Rift, the latter of which extends ten miles above 



