1 36 Notice of the Shad Fisheries of the River Delaware. 



their existence, when they are of all others the most delicate. After 

 having spawned, tlse old fish soon disappear. They are occasionally 

 caught indeed in the nets, but they are thin and worthless, and from 

 their attenuated condition, they are called by the fishermen ''racers." 

 The young fish remain in the river until tovs^ards autumn, by which 

 time they have attained the size of small herrings, when they in 

 their turn disappear. They are caught in immense numbers in the 

 weirs, and racks, and baskets which are constructed in the shallow 

 waters above the falls, for the purpose of taking the common river 

 fish, and they are so tender as to be destroyed by the least violence. 

 These contrivances, so destructive to the young fish, have conse- 

 quently become objects of legislative prohibition. 



The destination of these fish, after they quit the fresh water, is 

 unknown. I have never yet met with an authentic account of their 

 having been caught or even observed at sea, nor have naturalists at- 

 tempted to trace their route through the ocean, as in the case of the 

 herrings. Their term of life cannot be ascertained, but it is fair to 

 infer that they acquire their growth in a year, from the size to which 

 the young attain during their short sojourn in our wateis, as well 

 as from the general uniformity of size observed in each of the seve- 

 ral runs. Their average weight may be about seven pounds, but 

 individuals are occasionally caught which weigh as high as twelve 

 and even thirteen pounds. 



The numbers of shad taken in the Delaware vary in djiFerent sea- 

 sons. Perhaps it would not be far from the truth to estimate them 

 at thirty thousand at each shore fishery. Formerly, when fisheries 

 were fewer, the number far exceeded this amount. I have no data 

 bv which to estimate the number caught by the gilling seines, but 

 from the rapid multiplication of these destructive contrivances it must 

 be very great. The aggregate amount taken annually by the shore 

 seines and the drift nets, is probably not far short of one million fiv^e 

 hundred thousand, which at seven dollars per hundred, would be 

 worth upwards of one hundred thousand dollars. 



The principal market is Philadelphia; but immense numbers are 

 vended at the fisheries, to which people flock from all quarters in wag- 

 ons and boats. The writer has known sixty and seventy wagons 

 supplied in a day, (each perhaps taking at least one hundred,) at the 

 Fancy Hill fisheries, six miles below Philadelphia. The great mass 

 are salted like mackerel, and chiefly for domestic use. In the fresh 

 state they are, in the height of their season, one of the most delicious 



