224 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



SUSQUEHANNA RIVER. 



Susquehanna Eiver is situated partly in Maryland and New York, 

 but principally in Pennsylvania, traversing that State from its north- 

 ern to its southern border. Its source is in Otsego Lake, New York, 

 whence it ilows a distance of 422 miles to its entrance into Chesapeake 

 Bay. On account of the numerous rapids and the shoalness of the 

 water, the river is not navigable except for skiffs in short reaches. It 

 differs from most streams on the Atlantic coast north of Cape Lookout 

 in that it maintains fluvial characteristics quite to its mouth and 

 crosses the fall line very near its entrance into Chesapeake Bay, only 

 the extreme southern end being tidal. From the mouth to Columbia, 

 a distance of 43 miles, the width varies from a few hundred yards to 

 something over a mile, and the channel is dotted with islands and 

 rocks. The fall in this length is considerable, being 224 feet for the 43 

 miles, an average of over 5 feet per mile, resulting in numerous rapids 

 but no abrupt falls of any moment. Aside from the large quantity of 

 drift nets and seines near the mouth, the first serious obstruction to the 

 ascent of shad is at Columbia, where the stream is crossed by a dam 

 G,800 feet long and 7 or 8 feet high, built about 1835 for the purpose of 

 feeding the Susquehanna canal. This dam has been the principal cause 

 of the destruction of the up-river fisheries, and its existence has naturally 

 led to much contention between the fishermen and the owners of the 

 dam, a brief account of which is given on pp. 225-226. Breaks fre- 

 quently exist in this obstruction, permitting some shad to pass above it. 



Forty miles above Columbia the Susquehanna receives its second 

 largest tributary, the Juniata, a stream 100 miles in length, the shad 

 fisheries of which were formerly of considerable local importance. 

 The second dam on the Susquehanna is at Clark Ferry, just above the 

 entrance of the Juniata, the structure being 7 feet high and nearly 

 2,000 feet long. At Snnbury, 38 miles above Clark Ferry, there is 

 another canal dam 2,000 feet long and 74 feet high. Immediately above 

 Sunbury the Susquehanna receives its principal tributary, the West 

 Branch, which flows a distance of 175 miles before its union with the 

 Susquehanna, and which is obstructed by numerous dams. The Nan- 

 ticoke dam, 7 miles below Wilkesbarre and 174 miles from Havre de 

 Grace, is the fourth dam on the Susquehanna and has had very injuri- 

 ous effect on the shad fisheries. This structure, completed in 1830, is 

 of cribwork, 900 feet long and G feet high above low water. There are 

 a dozen or more old fish-dams between Nanticoke dam and the New 

 York line. The fall in this length is slight, averaging scarcely more 

 than 2 feet per mile. At Binghamton, N. Y., 318 miles from the mouth 

 of the river, there is a cribwork dam 450 feet long and 5J feet high at 

 low water, extending entirely across the stream. Above Binghamton 

 there are several primitive crib dams, producing falls of 3 to 10 feet. 



In the early part of the present century, before the construction of the 

 dams above enumerated, the shad fisheries of the Susquehanna were 

 among the most important on the Atlantic coast, extending from the 



