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were increasing, it is a very difficult question to answer 
indeed. There is no doubt about the fact that the Con- 
necticut River being a smaller river than the Potomac, 
or the Delaware, or the Hudson, that it is very possible 
that the methods of fishing adopted at the mouth of that 
river may have had very much to do with the decrease 
of the fish. Gentlemen who are not familiar with the 
Connecticut River may not be aware that we have a sys- 
tem there which, so far as I know, cannot be adopted in 
any other river in the country; that is, ] mean to such a 
deleterious effect upon the shad. The shad coming into 
the Connecticut River, as they approach the river come 
from the West generally. Whether they come from 
Montauk Point or through the bay from the North 
River and the East River, of course no one knows; but 
they do strike the coast of Connecticut somewhere along 
for a distance of ten or fifteen miles from the mouth of 
the Connecticut River. It should be borne in mind, 
that the water from the mouth of the Connecticut River 
does not go straight into the Sound, but makes a bend 
around to the right, so that nearly for ten miles around 
from the mouth of the Connecticut River water can be 
dipped from the surface of the Sound fit for drinking 
purposes. As the shad reaches this fresh water to go 
into the Connecticut River, of course they are directed 
towards the mouth of the river and follow along in that: 
direction. Now I am going to allude to the effect of 
pounds on the Connecticut River: Those were estab- 
lished in 1849 along the mouth of the Connecticut River 
for ten miles, every few rods during that whole distance; 
those pounds were erected in the run at ten, thirty and 
forty rods, sometimes two and three miles out into the 
Sound, each year further and further. They were so 
arranged that every fish coming along from the Sound 
seeking the mouth of the Connecticut River had to run 
the gauntlet of that entire lot of pounds, fifteen, 
twenty, thirty of them running that distance. Those 
