22 Fish, Fishing and Fisheries of Pennsylvania. 



is not known positively by the writer, but seemingly it was not much be- 

 fore the beginning of the present century. 



Apropos of the use of nets, Mr. William C. Crawford, of Matamoras.in 

 a communication to the Milford Dispatch, of November 5, 1891, relates 

 the following method adopted in his early days at the "Yankee" fishery 

 about 1826 and later: "During these years," he says, "* * * * the 

 fishing was done in the daytime and thousands were taken at a haul. 

 The fishermen's nets (with ropes) reached across the i-iver where they 

 started, a half a mile below where the Millf ord bridge now stands. The 

 men on each shore walked down, and a canoe that would hold five men, 

 four to pole and one to hold the rope, was at each end, with smaller ca- 

 noes to watch, for hitches, and when opposite the point of the Minisink 

 island the canoes left the shore and met on the point of the island. A 

 haul over this fishery swept over what has been called the Yankee, 

 Crooked Billet, Cabin, Streak and Barn fisheries, and covered about one 

 and a half miles." 



From the earliest date of the establishment of the fisheries on the 

 Delaware to the present time, those engaging in that work above Easton, 

 with scarcely an exception, fish at night, while below take advantage of 

 the daylight as well to work their nets. The fishermen of the upper 

 Delaware give as a reason for this comparatively exclusive night work, 

 that the habit of the shad is to run more freely during darkness and 

 keep quiet in the deep pools and eddies through the daylight, and there 

 seems to be force in this reasoning. 



In the use of the net in the upper waters of the Delaware also, it is 

 necessary to use very short dobber lines or generally none at all, for as 

 soon as the shad gets out of the deep water it rises nearer the surface 

 relatively than far down the river. Far up the river it is no uncommon 

 sight to see hundreds of shad making their way upward with their 

 backs frequently showing above the surface. Besides of this tendency 

 of the shad to break water in the upper Delaware, there is another rea- 

 son, not only for the abandonment of the dobber lines, but for much 

 shallower nets than the south Delaware fishermen employ. This is, 

 that the water is for the most part only from five to six feet in depth, 

 though occasionally there are fisheries where the river has a depth of ten 

 feet or so and boats must be used. 



The early fishermen of the upper Delaware adopted the same method 

 of dividing the fish caught as those of the early days of the Common- 

 wealth on the Susquehanna, and it is worthy of note that the peculiar 

 custom is still in vogue. 



Mr. Alexander A. Larzelere, formerly a" resident of Burlington, New 

 Jersey, now Frankford, Philadelphia, in speaking of the shad fisheries 

 of the Delaware many years ago, says: "There was in 1806 at Moore's 

 Point, or Biles Creek, Pa., above Perewig island, a large fishery owned 

 by the Moore family. The current oi' the river is very strong here and 



