Fish, Fishinri and Fisheries of Pennsylvania. 25 



CHAPTEE IV. 



Eaely Fisheries of the Schuylkill. 



Not less beautiful in scenic effects than the Delaware is its greatest 

 tributory, the River Schuylkill, named by the early Dutch settlers from 

 the windings and hidden character of the stream. Near Philadelphia 

 this river and its surroundings bear a remarkable resemblance to the 

 River Rhine. A few miles above, the river dividing winds its arms 

 like huge silver serpents in and out among mountains and hills wild 

 and grand. 



The Schuylkill was once a famous shad river; William Penn in one 

 of his letters mentioned that "six hundred shad had been taken with 

 one sweep of the seine." But now, through dams and pollution, its glory 

 in this respect has departed, and since 1830, as far as known, not a fish 

 of this species has returned in its waters. 



On the banks of this river was founded, in 1732, the " Schuylkill 

 Fishing Company of the State in Schuylkill," one of those institutions 

 for which Philadelphia is at once famous and peculiar. This organization 

 flourishes to-day as vigorousls'' as it did one hundred and sixty years ago, 

 although its quarters have been moved from its original location. For 

 years the society occupied a building on the slope of Warner's Hill, 

 paying an annual rental to William Warner, the owner of the land, of 

 three fresh sunfish. Still another famous fishing club of pre-revolu- 

 tionary times was that of old Fort St. Davids, where Falls of Schuyl- 

 kill now is. This organization, which was composed of many notable 

 men, after the war for independence, was merged into that of the State 

 in Schuylkill. 



Mr. Samuel W. Pennypacher, one of the most eminent antiquarians 

 in the state, has been at much trouble in rescuing from oblivion the 

 early fisheries of the Schuylkill, and has embodied the results of his re- 

 searches in a deeply interesting work entitled "Phoenixville and Yi- 

 cinity." Of the fisheries, Mr. Pennypacher says, "that in the early 

 part of the last century every Spring, the shad came up the 

 Schuylkill in immense numbers, and the inhabitants along its banks 

 engaging en masse in fishing, secured enough to furnish their fami- 

 lies with this article of food until the next annual return. The earliest pi ace 

 for fishing now known was at the Long Ford, opposite Port Providence. 

 The.pond there constructed belonged in common to the dwellers upon 

 both shores of the river, and they united their forces in the pursuit and 

 divided the spoils after the capture. A wall, in the form of a segment 



