SWAMP WHITE-OAK BEND. 107 



of it, not in a straight line, but in two parts, verging tow- 

 ards each other in an angle. An opening is left in the 

 middle for the water to run off. At this opening they 

 place a large box, the bottom of which is full of holes. 

 Then they make a rope of the twigs of the wild vine, 

 reaching across the stream, upon which boughs of about 

 six feet in length are fastened at the distance of about 

 two fathoms from each other. A party is detached about 

 a mile above the dam with this rope and its appendages, 

 who begin to move gently down the current, some guid- 

 ing one, some the opposite end, while others keep the 

 branches from sinking by supporting the rope in the 

 middle with wooden forks. Thus they proceed, fright- 

 ening the fishes into the opening left in the middle of 

 the dam, where a number of Indians are placed on each 

 side, who, standing upon the two legs of the angles, drive 

 the fishes with poles and a hideous noise, through the 

 opening into the above-mentioned box or chest. Here 

 they lie, the water running off through the holes in the 

 bottom, and other Indians, stationed on each side of the 

 chest, take them out, kill them, and fill their canoes. By 

 this contrivance they sometimes catch above a thousand 

 shad and other fish in half a day." 



It was at this bend of the creek that the Indians had 

 one of their fish-dams, and a century afterwards traces 

 of it were plainly to be seen at low tide. The few 

 Indians that lingered about the settlements of the whites 

 still used it, and fished at times in company with their 

 pale-faced neighbors. It is due to this fact that refer- 

 ences to such fishing sites and methods of capturing 

 shad have been recorded in several old commonplace 



