Fish, Fishing and Fisheries of Pennsylvania. 21 



In the upper waters of the Delaware the earliest shad fisheries seem 

 to have been established somewhere about 1751, and presumably was 

 known as the Point fishery, and was a "day" fishery. That is, contrary 

 to the usual custom, no hauls were made at night. When it ceased to 

 be a fishery is not known positively, but was certainly still in existence 

 in 1815, for among some old papers found bearing that date was one 

 which conveyed a single share, or one-fifteenth interest in the Point 

 fishery. This deed recites three transfers, beginning with one Roger 

 Clark. 



Shortly after this there was another fishery established, which be- 

 longed to Benjamin Van Crampen, and it was, according to Mr. L. W. 

 Brodhead, of Delaware Water Gap, on "the shore of a tract of land 

 formerly Ryerons (Ryersons), in the township of Walpack, Sussex 

 county, New Jersey." The place is now known as Shoemaker's Ferry, 

 and is five miles above the Delaware Water Gap. The fishery of Van 

 Crampen joined "the land of Robert Hooper and others in tenure 

 and occupancy of William Coolbaugh," and the place for drawing the net 

 was downward from the mouth of Duncan's creek. In 1787 Van 

 Crampen leased the fishery to James Brooks, William Coolbaugh, Cor- 

 nelius Brooks, John Van Crampen, Cornelius Depue and Daniel Labar, 

 Jr., for a period of ninety-nine years for the consideration of twelve 

 shad a year. Thus it will be seen that Benjamin held his rights at 

 slight value. 



Whether the lessees of this fishery used seines, is not stated, but there 

 is a possibility that they did not, but practiced the favorite method of 

 the Indians of driving the fish into pens. This possibility is based on 

 the following letter written by an old resident of Port Deposit, New 

 York. 



"In my youth immense numbers of shad came up the Delaware every 

 spring to and above this place on the west or main branch of the Dela- 

 ware, and shad fishing was a regular business among the early settlers, 

 furnishing an abundant supply of food. About the first of June some 

 ten or a dozen neighbors would assemble and selecting a suitable place 

 would construct a large pen or wire near the shore, with an opening for 

 the fish to enter. From this a brush wing or dam was extended diag- 

 nally up and across the river to the opposite shore. They then went 

 up the river some two miles or more and constructed what they term a 

 'brush seive,' composed of limbs of trees with the leaves adhering and 

 reaching from shore to shore. The branches were bound together with 

 withes. The men were then placed at regular intervals in the water, 

 pushing the brush seine and driving the shad before them into the pen 

 below. In this way many hundreds and sometimes thousands were 

 secured. The same process would be repeated below, forcing the shad 

 up the river to an opening made in the opposite side of the pen." 



About what time seines came into general use on the upper Delaware 



