■Fish, Fishing and Fisheries of Pennsylvmda. 31 



ward the s'd Men pursued this Depon't A Company, who for fear of 

 Murthered made the best of their way with their Canoes to the Mouth 

 of Parkyooman Creek & there went ashore & left their Canoes there 

 with several CI oaths, which Canoes are since Split in Pieces (as Reported) 

 & several of the Cloaths turn'd adrift on the s'd River. 



"The X mark of William Richards, sworn on the 27th day of April, 

 1738, Before me, Ras Assheton." 



* * * * This difficulty was the cause of considerable agitation in 

 the colony and resulted in the termination of rack fishing. 



"* * * * After the racks had been removed from the Schuylkill, 

 fishing enstead of being an occasional pursuit for the whole neighbor- 

 hood, became a regiilar avocation, and was conducted by a few skilled 

 persons, who gave their time and attention to it. Pools were cleared 

 away in the River and the fish were hauled into the shore by means of 

 seines. 



"The Islands, since they contained the best landing places, grew to 

 be very valuable. Four hundred shad were caught at Long Ford in a 

 haul, which is the largest upon record. Twenty-three hundred were 

 caught in one night at the Island opposite Phcenixville. 



In 1820 "there were fisheries at Longaker's Pool, where the railroad 

 now crosses the Schuylkill at the mouth of the tunnel, at Buckwalter's 

 Pool, near Buckwalter's Island ; at the mouth of the French Creek, at 

 Long Ford, Green Hill, Perkiomen and Valley Forge. At Buckwalters 

 in 1812, one hundred shad were caught in a seine at one time. 



"When Samuel Lane owned' the Bull Tavern, he had an arrangement 

 with the fishermen at the mouth of the Pickering, that he was to fur- 

 nish them each morning with a quart of whiskey, and they were to give 

 him in return a shad weighing eight pounds. The contract was contin- 

 ued for some years with mutual satisfaction. After a time, however, 

 shad deteriorated so much in quality that those of that weight became 

 extremely rare. Finally, one morning the fisherman saw 'Old Sammy' 

 coming along as usual with his quart jug, and, on looking over their 

 captures, no fish of the requisite proportions could be found. In this 

 unfortunate emergency a happy thought occurred to one of them, and, 

 seizing the largest of the fish, he held its mouth open while a comrade 

 filled in pebbles enough to give it the proper weight. The old man 

 carried it off to his home, saying it was a heavy fellow, but the whiskey 

 contract was afterward abandoned." 



One of the most valuable of the shad fisheries on the Schuylkill, near 

 Philadelphia, was at Manayunk. Before the beginning of the present 

 century there had been made in the river, from time to time, a succession 

 of rude dams from one to three feet high. These dams extended only a 

 portion of the way across the river and were intended merely to force 

 the water into a particular channel. Between the island at Manayunk 

 and the western shore was one of these dams, forcing the water into a 



