648 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



Major Fassett's father was one of eleven owners in the Sterling Island fishery, and his inter- 

 est was valued at $100. 



Mr. Hollenback's information on the money value of the different fisheries is by far the most 

 valuable; he says the Standing Stone fishery was worth from $300 to $400 per annum ; the Ter- 

 rytown fishery was worth about the same ; the Wyalusing Creek fishery was worth about $250 

 per annum ; the Ingham Island fishery, $50 less ; the Browntown and Skinner's Eddy fisheries, 

 about $150 per annum each. 



Jameson Harvey say : " The widow Stewart, at the Stewart fishery, used often to take from 

 $30 to $40 of a night for her share of the haul." 



The data bearing upon this point are decidedly unsatisfactory, as they would only give to the 

 forty fisheries an annual value of about $12,000, a large amount for those days, yet one we believe 

 to be too small ; the next item, the " catch," should be taken with this one to form a basis for cal- 

 culation. 



CATCH. At the eight fisheries near Northumberland large numbers of shad were taken ; th ree 

 hundred was a common haul ; some hauls ran from three to five thousand. The Rockafeller fish- 

 ery, just below Danville (about the year 1820), gave an annual yield of from three to four thousand, 

 worth from 12 cents to 25 cents apiece. 



Mr. Fowler says that the fishery just above Berwick was one of the most productive, and that 

 he has assisted there in catching " thousands upon thousands," but does not give the average an- 

 nual yield ; he also says, that at the Tuckahoe fishery " many thousands were caught night and 

 day in early spring ; " and at the Webb and Boon fisheries the hauls were immense ; at the latter 

 they got so many at a haul that they couldn't dispose of them, and they were actually hauled on 

 Boon's farm for manure. 



At Hnnlock's fishery the annual catch must have been about ten thousand. 



At the Dutch fishery in one night thirty-eight hundred were taken. 



At the Fish Island fishery, at a single haul, nearly ten thousand shad were taken. 



Mr. Jenkins recollects of seeing a haul at Monocacy Island just before the dam was put in 

 of twenty-eight hundred. 



At Scovel's Island the catch was from twenty to sixty per night; at Falling Spring fifty to 

 three hundred per night ; at Taylor's Island from two hundred to four hundred per night. 



At Wyalusing the annual catch was between two and three thousand; and at Standing Stone 

 between three and four thousand. 



The daily catch at the Terrytown fishery was about one hundred and fifty. 



Major Fassett says that at the Sterling Island fishery "over two thousand were caught in one 

 day in five hauls." 



It is a plain deduction from the above facts that the fisheries down the river were much more 

 valuable than those above. Above Monocacy we hear of no catch over two thousand, while below 

 that point they were much larger, and while from $300 to $400 seems to be the general annual 

 value above, we find the fishery at Hunlock's, 12 miles below, was worth from $1,000 to $1,200 per 

 annum. The shad farther up the river appear to have decreased in numbers yet to have increased 

 in size, and that brings us to the next head. 



SIZE. The opinion seems to be general that the great size attained by the Susquehanna shad 

 was attributed to the long run up the fresh-water stream (carrying the idea of the survival of the 

 fittest) ; that they were of great size is beyond doubt ; nearly every one who recollects them in- 

 sists on putting their weight at almost double that of the average Delaware shad of to-day. 



