176 THE SHAD STREAMS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 


in the dam at Columbia, and had every reason to believe that it would 
prove a success, a second one was ordered to be built at that point at 
the state’s expense, without any guarantee from the patentee. 
It was at first proposed to build these fishways in the large opening 
or fishway located nearly in the center of the dam, but after careful ex- 
aminations made on two different occasions, by two members of the 
board and the engineer; it was finally decided to build the “ Roger’s 
patent” in the old fishway formerly built by the owners of the dam, and 
located much nearer the York county shore ; and in September, 1886, the 
fishways were built in this opening. Ten men, besides the engineer and 
foreman, were employed in the work, and 24,500 feet of hemlock timber 
and plank, 13,400 feet of oak, 5,700 pounds of iron bolts and 300 perches 
of stone ballast were used in the construction. 
These fishways successfully resisted the heavy ice freshets of the fol- 
lowing winter ; and in the spring when the shad commenced their move- 
mentup the river, a test of the ability of the fishway to pass them through, 
was made by staking a gilling net for a couple of days and nights in a 
semicircle around the upper end of the fishway, leaving a considerable 
body of water between the net and the structure. A number of shad 
made the ascent and were caught in the meshes of the seine, leaving no 
doubt in the minds of the commissioners as to the success of the fish- 
way which was accepted and paid for by the state. 
The Board of Fish Commissioners appointed by Governor Hartranft 
in 1873, consisting of B. L. Hewit, H. J. Reeder and James Duffy, at 
once recognized the fact that illegal, indiscriminate and wasteful fishing 
had almost depopulated the great streams of the state emptying into 
the Atlantic, which, at one time, abounded with shad. They made a 
very careful study of the situation as it then existed, and’came to the 
conclusion that the deterioration was due principally to the following 
causes: (1) The practice of fishing with drift nets in the lower portion of 
the rivers. (2) The “close time” or the time during which fishing is 
forbidden in the rivers not being sufficiently long and not being ob- 
served. (3) The destruction of the young, when returning to the sea, by 
fish-baskets. 
The annual supply depends of course upon the ability of the shad to 
reach proper places for the deposit and hatching of their eggs. In their 
progress up the river they met net after net thrown across the channel for 
their capture. All the contrivances which man, their most destructive 
and unrelenting enemy, could devise were placed to entrap them, and as 
a natural result very few of those which originally started from the sea 
reached their spawning grounds. The “close time” commenced at mid- 
night on Saturday of each and every week during the fishing season 
and continued until midnight Sunday. Without “close time,” which is 
intended to allow a certain interval during which the river shall be free 
of nets, and an open highway offering no impediment to the upward 
