1882. ] FISH COMMISSIONERS’ REPORT. 25 
It will be found, on comparison with last year, that 81,760 
more shad are reported as caught in 1881 than in 1880. 
The pounds increased their catch from 175,784 in 1880 to 
281,638 in 1881, but the report includes the catch of 36 
pounds in 1881 and only 29 in 1880. The gill-nets report a 
catch of only 43,451 in 1881, but in 1880 they caught 56,505. 
The number reported in 1881, however, has decreased from 
57 in 1880 to 42 in 1881. The hauling seines report a catch 
of 26,589 in 1881 and 87,629 in 1880, but only 8 are reported, 
instead of 15 in 1880. 
Mr. Henry J. Fenton reports that 11,505 shad were taken 
during the season in the Farmington River. Complaint is 
sometimes made that the shad fishing in the Thames River 
is not as good as it ought to be. This can doubtless be 
accounted for from the fact that the mature shad are not 
protected on their spawning grounds. The following letter 
from a gentleman well known to your Commissioners will 
illustrate this. For obvious reasons, the name of the writer 
is not here given. 
GREENEVILLE, Conn., June 29, 1881. 
Wu. M. Hupson, Esea.: 
Dear Sir,—According to law the fishermen here stopped fishing 
June 20th. Now for a few days the water has been very low, and 
since last Saturday morning over 150 shad have been clubbed to 
death by boys with sticks and stones. The shad have not spawned 
yet, and this is reducing the future fishing at a fearful rate. 
ENFIELD DAM. 
The original charter of the Connecticut River Company 
required that a wide opening should be maintained in the 
center of the dam at Enfield for the passage of logs, the 
ascent of fish, and navigation purposes. An amendment to 
this charter was granted by the last legislature of Connecti- 
cut, permitting the company “to unite their said dams at 
Enfield Falls, aforesaid, so as to continue and extend the 
same across the Connecticut River, and to raise said dam and 
dams to such a height that the crest or crests thereof shall 
not exceed the height of seven feet above the miter sill of the 
4 
