FISH FISHING AND FISHERIES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



CHAPTER I. 



Primeval Fisheemen and Fishing. 



Less than three hundred years ago the rivers and streams within the 

 confines of what is now the State of Pennsylvania were fairly alive with 

 fish. Shad, herring and other migratory fishes annually ascended the 

 Susquehanna and Delaware rivers and their tributaries in such vast mul- 

 titudes that, according to one old writer, the still waters seemed filled 

 with eddies, while the shallows were beaten into foam by them in their 

 struggles to reach the spawning grounds. As the rivers of Alaska are 

 said to be filled to-day with salmon, so were the Susquehanna and Dela- 

 ware described to have been with other fishes some two hundred and 

 fifty years ago. 



As the rivers were in those days with migj-atory fish, so were the 

 mountain and meadow streams with trout. Whenever the water condi- 

 tions were at all favorable, this great game fish lived in countless num- 

 bers, and like the shad and other migratory fishes, grew to much larger 

 size than are now commonly found. Even catfish, suckers and. other 

 finny members of life in those early days reached a greater fullness of 

 growth. 



At that time, the Indians, of what is now Pennsylvania, throughout 

 its whole extent, and indeed, for some distance north, west and south 

 depended almost wholly on the fish supply for food. These people 

 could with much truth be called fish-eaters. Proof of this is found in 

 every ancient Indian village site, where the ashes and charcoal of prime- 

 val camp fires have preserved bones of animal food devoured by the red- 

 skinned hunters. In every case, no matter whether the village was lo- 

 cated beside a large water course or at some distance from it, bones of 

 fishes have been found among the camp fire ashes. Bones of deer, elk 

 and bear, the principal animal food of the Indians, are also discovered in 

 great quantity, but insignificantly so when compared with the number 

 of fish bones found. 



If further proof be wanting as to the great dependence on fish, it is 

 found in the ancient shell heaps on the sea coast, the accumulations of 

 the Indians who visited the ocean annually from miles inland for mol- 

 lusks which they smoked for winter use. Among these shell heaps are 

 discovered numerous fish spears and hooks, together with abundant re- 

 mains of fishes. Thus while mollusk gathering was the primary object 

 of the ocean visits, the Indians kept well in mind the value of sea fishes 

 as an article of food. 



