SHAD FISHERIES OF THE ATLANTIC COAST. 151 



Next comes the Grassy Island fishery, 17 iniles above the South 

 Carolina line and 25 miles above the lowest dam near Cheraw. This 

 contains 25 wheels and 2 fall traps, the yield in 1895 being 305 shad, 

 but only 2 in 1896, both of which were bucks. This appears to be the 

 highest point to which shad ascended the Pee Dee in 1896. The catch 

 during the first season following the establishment of this fishery, 

 about 1875, approximated 17,000 shad. A short distance above the 

 Grassy Island fishery is the Upper fishery or the Grassy Island Upper 

 fishery, consisting of 14 dippers and 3 fall traps. There is a small 

 island in the river at this point and 12 of the dippers and 2 traps are 

 located in the main channel of the stream, and 2 dippers and 1 trap in 

 the side channel. These caught 192 shad in 1895, but none whatever 

 in 1896. 



Joseph Aldman's fishery, 50 miles above Cheraw and 21 miles below 

 the Narrows, containing 2 wheels and 2 fall traps, has yielded no 

 shad since 1894, when it caught 1 buck. Ten to twelve years ago 

 this fishery yielded about 100 shad each season. A number of fishing- 

 dams in this vicinity have been permitted to go to waste on account of 

 the scarcity of fish. Sampson Parker has a fishery 13 miles below the 

 Narrows and 58 miles above Cheraw which contains 3 wheels and 1 fall 

 trap, the dam entirely blocking the river. This fishery took no shad 

 .in 1896 and only 2 buck shad in 1895. This is the highest point on the 

 river at which shad have been taken since 1892. Six miles below the 

 Narrows is Kirk's fishery, consisting of a dam partly blocking the river, 

 containing 2 fall traps, which have taken no shad during the last five 

 years. 



At the Great Falls or the Yadkin Falls, 2 miles below the Narrows, 

 there are 3 dippers, which have yielded no shad since 1892. A fishery 

 of 2 or 3 dippers, about 1 mile below the Narrows, has taken no shad 

 since 1891. In the case of the two latter there are no artificial dams, 

 the dippers or wheels being located in the favorable sluices in the rocky 

 course of the river, and in no case do they entirely block the channel. 

 Numerous other dams formerly existed in this length of the river, 

 especially between Grassy Island and Great Falls, but the unprofit- 

 ableness of the fishery has led to their abandonment. 



It thus appears that from Cheraw to the Narrows, a distance of 71 

 miles, there are at present 16 wheel and fall-trap fisheries, which more 

 or less effectually obstruct the free passage of fish. All of these were 

 originally constructed for catching shad, but in 1896 not a single shad 

 was taken in the upper six fisheries, only 4 in the next three, and 

 the total yield of shad in the 16 was but 710, of which 342 were 

 females. In 1895 the catch in the same apparatus was 2,229 shad. The 

 decrease was especially apparent above the Broach and Quick dam, 

 the catch above that point being 258 in 1896 against 1,469 in 1895. The 

 catch from the Broach and Quick dam to the lowest dam, including 

 Sherrel's seine bar, was 1,042 shad in 1896 and 1,060 in 1895. It should 

 be noted that the Broach and Quick dam was enlarged in 1895 so as to 



