g60 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



have disappeared since the erection of numerous dams along its course. At Bellow's Falls the 

 Connecticut River descends about CO feet by precipitous slopes. These falls, though effectually 

 obstructing the further ascent of the shad, did riot prevent the upward passage of the salmon, 

 many of which ascended above this point to suitable spawning ground. An interesting account 

 of these early fisheries is given in Judd's History of Hadley, Mass., which is here reproduced: 



" When the English established themselves on the banks of the Connecticut there was in the 

 river and tributary streams, in the proper seasons, a great abundance of shad, salmon, bass, and 

 other fish, such as the Indians had long used for food. The shad, which were very numerous, 

 were despised and rejected by a large portion of the English for near one hundred years in the old 

 towns of Connecticut, and for about seventy-five years in those Hampshire towns above the falls. 

 It was discreditable for those who had a competency to eat shad; and it was disreputable to be 

 destitute of salt pork, and the eating of shad implies a deficiency of pork. The story which has 

 been handed down that in former days the fishermen took the salmon from the net and often 

 restored the shad to the stream is not a fable. Poor families ate shad, and doubtless some that 

 were not poor, and they were sometimes put in barrels for exportation. Connecticut shad in 

 barrels were advertised in Boston in 1736. The first purchase of shad found in any account book 

 in those tQwns was made by Joseph Hawley, of Northampton, in 1733 ; he gave for thirty shad 1 

 penny each, which was not equal to half a penny in lawful money. Ebeuezer Hunt gave 1 J pence 

 for shad in 1736, 2 pence for 'good fat shad' in 1737, and 2 and 3 pence in 1742 and 1743. 

 Ebenezer Hunt bought bass, suckers, pickerels, and common eels. No trout are mentioned. He 

 says of shad in 1743, ' shad ar3 very good, whether one has pork or not.' These prices were all 

 less than a penny in lawful money. 



"The early settlers of Pelham bought many shad. After the specie currency in 1750 shad were 

 usually 1 penny each. Josiah Pierce, of Hadley, bought one hundred shad at a penny each in 

 1762, ninety shad at a penny in 1763, and shad at a penny in 1764, 1765, and 1766. Oliver Smith, 

 of Hailey, gave a penny each for thirty shad in 1767. For forty years after 1733 the price did 

 not exceed a lawful penny. From 1773 to 1776 the price was 2 coppers each, or 1 pence; from 

 1781 to 1784, from 2 to 3 coppers; in 1788, 2 and 3 pence; in 1796, 3 and 4 pence ; and in 1797 

 and 1800, 4 pence half penny. The dams across the river and other impediments diminished the 

 number of shad, and they gradually advanced in value to 6 pence, 9 pence, 1 shilling, and higher 

 prices, and men ceased to buy shad to barrel for family use. 



"Field's account of the county of Middlesex, Conn., 1819 (Middletown, Haddam, &c.), says there 

 was such prejudice against shad and some other fish, because they were so generally used by the 

 Indians, or from some other cause, that little effort was made to take them for more than a century 

 after the county was settled. Within the memory of persons living (1863) there was very little 

 demand for salmon, and as for shad it was disreputable to eat them. A story is told in Hadley of 

 a family in that place who were about to dine on shad when it was not reputable to eat them, 

 hearing a knock at the door, the platter of shad was immediately hid under a bed. There is a 

 minute in John Pynchon's account book which shows that shad were not slighted by all those who 

 were in good circumstances in the seventeenth century. In 1083 he sold a fish-net and agreed to 

 receive for pay some shad packed for market, and 'fifty shad for my family spending at times.' 



''Shad-eating became reputable thirty years before the Revolution. Shad were caught plenti- 

 fully in many places in Connecticut before 1760, and were sold at 1 penny and 1 pence each some 

 years later. They were carried away on horses. Some thousands of barrels of shad were put up in 

 Connecticut for the troops from 1778 to 1781. Shad never ascended Bellows Falls at Walpole, nor 



