34 Fish, Fishing and Fisheries of Pennsylvania. 



traps and the outrageous methods adopted by many of the people in 

 the upper reaches of the Delaware to secure their prey. For miles 

 above Trenton fish baskets were set one above the other until the 

 wonder was how a single fish managed to escape. 



But fatal as these fish traps were to the continuance of the fishing in- 

 dustry by the impossibility of more than a small percentage of the 

 mature fish escaping to the spawning grounds, they were far more so 

 to the young shad on their way in the fall of the year from the upper 

 reaches of the river to the sea. So delicate is the structure of the young 

 shad that the loss of even a few scales means death. Into the fish 

 baskets nearly every young shad was forced to go, and thousands upon 

 thousands annually perished there. As many as fifty thousand dead 

 young shad, it is said, have been taken from one of these fish baskets at 

 a time, and it is estimated that as many more fish of those that suc- 

 ceeded in passing through the slats died through injury to their deli- 

 cate bodies. Mr. Howard Reeder, wlio was at the head of the State 

 Fish Commission in 1874, in making his report, speaks as follows con- 

 cerning fish baskets and traps : 



" Of all implements for the wanton destruction of fishes which have ever 

 been constructed by human skill, the one most worthy of condemnation 

 is the ordinary fish basket. These instruments of extirpation ai'e placed 

 in the midchannel of the river, with long arms or wings made of stones, 

 extending upon either side towards the shores. Every living creature 

 carried by the current is swept into these baskets. Young shad 

 are particularly delicate. A blow which displaces a scale will re- 

 sult in the death of the fish, so that scarcely a young shad which suc- 

 ceeds in going through the slats of the basket will live, while millions 

 are stopped upon the basket and there allowed to die. Instances have 

 come to our knowledge where, in 1870 and 1871, parties owning baskets 

 were obliged to shovel out with a wooden scoop the young shad that 

 had accumulated in their baskets in less time than one night. In one 

 instance the owner of the basket said that he thought in one night he 

 had thrown from his fish basket more than a cart load of young shad. 

 It is not probable that one survived. 



« * * * * * As an engine used for the destruction of fish, the set- 

 net or fike-net is surpassed only by the fish basket. This net is an 

 elongated trap with a large mouth set directly in the current of the 

 stream, sometimes with long arms or wings of stone extending out 

 similar to the fish-basket, turning the entire current through the net and 

 sweeping into it every living creature carried by the current. These 

 nets require no attention and no labor. They are simply deposited and 

 left to take care of themselves until the owner is ready to take 

 them up and empty them of their catch. Occasionally along our large 

 rivers you will find a man owning as high as thirty or forty of these 

 nets." 



