36 Fish, Fislimg and Fisheries of Pennsylvan 



I a. 



the one at Lackawaxen, completely destroyed the shad-fishing Industrie 

 above them. It is true that the Tide Water Canal Company were bound 

 to keep an open passage for fish in its dam, but for many years they 

 failed to carry out this portion of their duty. 



After the erection of the Columbian dam, the people who dwelt below 

 seemed to think that the future of the shad fishing industry in the Sus- 

 quehanna was about at an end, for they threw all discretion to the wind^, 

 and adopted all kinds of outrageous methods of taking fish. The river 

 for miles and miles below the dam is studded with innumerable rocks 

 in every form of grouping. Many of these rocks occur in twins, with a 

 small space between them, through which the water washes, " and," says 

 Commissioner James Worrallin his report for 1870, "there is no care of 

 the kind which has been neglected by the kiddlers. Between these twin 

 rocks a fish basket is certain to be found." As a natural result of such 

 work in 1870 there were not five shad caught where there were a hun- 

 dred in earlier times. 



It is well known that shad on their way from the sea will make almost 

 preternatural efforts to reach the grounds on which they were spawned, 

 there to deposit their spawn in turn. The story told by an old gentle- 

 man, therefore, of a sight he witnessed at the base of one of these dams 

 has much of pathos in it. Thousands upon thousands of fish, he said, 

 were in the pools, darting hither and thither in frantic efforts to pass 

 the barrier, sometimes great numbers of them, their silver sides glitter- 

 ing through the water, coiild be seen following along the base of the 

 dam in vain hopes of finding an opening. 



On such occasions as this the fisherman was in his glory. Alvan Dane, 

 an old gentleman now living at Kansas City, but formerly a resident on 

 the banks of the North Branch of the Susquehanna, says that when the 

 Nanticoke dam was built the shad could not come above it, and men 

 were in the habit of fishing there with a three pronged hook, sinker, and 

 stout line and pole. This was sunk, and after a few minutes quickly 

 jerked up. "I caught two in that way; others had better luck, and it 

 was reported that one man caught seventy in one day; but I think a 

 large reduction would come nearer the truth."' 



While the great shad industry in the Susquehanna, Delaware and 

 their tributaries was being thus ruthlessly destroyed by dams, fish- 

 baskets, traps and other iniquitous contrivances, the mountain and 

 other streams and the mountain lakes were being as wantonly depleted 

 of other food fishes just as rapidly. Wherever there was a body 

 of water that contained trout, pickerel, catfish, or in fact any member of 

 the finny tribe worth having, there were to be found people using the 

 most detestable methods for their capture. Every mountain stream 

 contained numberless fish baskets, set lines were zigzagged from bank to 

 bank, and uader the over-hanging bushes. Not only were seines used 

 to sweep the pools, but lime, cocculus indicus, and other deleterious 



