Fish, Fishing and Fisheries of Pennsylvania. 



done on rainy and cold days and evening-s. The nets he says were knit 

 in sections by the shareholders, each one owning so many yards of net, 

 and each one receiving his share of fish, according to the number of 

 yards owned. When the sections were all done one or two of the most 

 expert would knit them together and hang them besides, putting on 

 the corks and leads. 



The early shad fisheries were not common property. The owner of 

 the soil was the owner of the fishery, and no one was allowed to fish 

 without a permit. When the owners were not using the seines they 

 often hired them out to others and take pay in fish. The seiner's share 

 was always one-half the catch. 



In working up the early fisheries of the Susquehanna those inter- 

 ested in such matters are indebted chiefly to the Wyoming Historical 

 and Geological Society of Wilkes-Barre, who appointed a committee, 

 with Mr. Harrison Wright as chairman, to make thorough investigation. 

 These gentlemen gathered every scrap of information pertaining to the 

 subject that was obtainable from all parts of the vast stretch of six hun- 

 dred and thirty-five miles of the Susquehanna and its great branches. 

 In preparing this chapter, a large portion of the report of this work has 

 been used. 



The county records, according to the report, only go back to 1787. 

 In that year it was found that one Caleb Wright purchased a half in- 

 terest in a fishery between Shickshinny and Nanticoke, called the 

 "Dutch fishery." For this share he paid £20 in "lawful money of Penn. 

 sylvania," equivalent to $53.33. lu connection with this particular case 

 is a note which gives an idea of the vast amount of fish that must have 

 ascended the Susquehanna in those days, it being related that a son of 

 Caleb Wright once received as his share of one nights' fishing 1,900 

 shad. From other investigations it is shown about the same period a 

 right in a fishery was worth from ten to twenty dollars, while once in a 

 while such a right was held at as much as one hundred dollars. To the 

 holders of these rights the returns seem to have been very large. One 

 Jonathan Hunloch's half interest in the Hunloch fishery was considered 

 worth from five hundred to six hundred dollars per annum. Others ran 

 from three hundred to four hundred dollars a year, while sometimes from 

 thirty to forty dollars amight were taken in by each fisherman. These 

 fisheries, as far as research can determine, netted some $12,000 annually, 

 though some are inclined to place the returns at a very much higher 

 figure. Even at $12,000 a year, the fisheries of the Susquehanna were 

 much more profitable than at the present day. 



Early in the present century, according to the finding of the Wilkes- 

 Barre Society, there were some forty permanent fisheries between North- 

 umberland and Towanda, to wit : 



At Northumberland, or just below, was Hummel's fishery ; between 

 Northumberland and Danville there were eight fisheries in order from 



