Fish, Fishing and Fisheries of Pennsylvania. 17 



■with which to trade. A relative of the same gentleman tells of a firm 

 named Miller & McCard trading- at Tunkhannock which did quite an ex- 

 iensive business in shad, sending the cured ones up the river into New 

 York State and far down the river, presumably Baltimore. 



The two gentlemen who composed this firm were originally residents 

 of Coxestown — a small place on the Susquehanna, about five miles from 

 Harrisburg, but as early as 1800 moved up the river to Tunkhannock 

 in a Durham boat, on which they carried their stock of goods. They 

 ■cured large quantities of shad which they bought from, the fisheries in 

 the neighborhood. The difficulties they labored under in this work of 

 curing must have been very great, for salt was extremely scarce, in fact, 

 it is said, there was none except what was brought in wagons from the 

 ■cities in the way of trade, or by the same kind of vehicles from the salt 

 works at Onondaga, New York. So precious was this article that it was 

 not unusual that a bushel of it would purchase one hundred shad. 



Besides the people who traveled to the Susquehanna river for shad 

 and the residents there who took them to distant points for sale, nearly 

 ■every boat which plied the Susquehanna, took down shad, paying 

 therefore in leather, cider, whiskey, cider royal, salt, iron and other 

 material. 



Besides that no other deep sea fish appears to have gone up the west 

 branch in such quantities as they did up the north branch, unless it be 

 inferior grade food fishes like the eel. 



In the performance of the work of securing data for their report, Mr. 

 Harrison Wright and his committee interviewed by letter or in person 

 a large number of the old settlers. Besides this, country records, files 

 of old newspapers, the numerous printed histories, were all consulted. 

 Most of the letters and interviews were of such an interesting character 

 that some are here given. Joseph Van Kirk, a resident of Northumber- 

 land, says: "An incident in connection with shad fishing presents 

 itself to my mind, related often by my grandmother: A party of In- 

 dians, returning from a treaty at Philadelphia, landed their canoes, 

 came to her house to borrow her big kettle to cook their dinner in. 

 After building a fire and hanging over the kettle, they put in the shad, 

 just as they were- taken from the river, with beans, cabbage, potatoes 

 and onions." 



According to Jameson Harvey, the owners of fish-houses used to have 

 arrangements so that when they run out of salt they could dry and 

 smoke the shad, as they now do herring and salmon. Some of the shad 

 used to weigh eight or nine pounds. I saw one weighed on a wager 

 turning the scales at thirteen pounds ; about seventy or eighty would 

 :fill a barrel. The shad improved very much coming up the river, those 

 caught in this valley being very much larger and finer than those caught 

 at Columbia. 



Mr. C. Dorrance, of Scottsville, says: I cannot better illustrate the 

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