38 Fish, Fishing and Fisheries of Pennsylvania. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Work of Eestoking the Shad Eiveks. 



This was briefly the condition of affairs in Pennsylvania about the 

 close of the Civil War: One dam impeded the passage of shad in the 

 Delaware, and others near the mouths of the Schuylkill and Lehigh and 

 on the Susquehanna prevented this food fish from ascending the waters 

 at all. Through these obstructions, destructive fishing and water pollu- 

 tion, the shad fisheries of the Schuylkill and Lehigh were utterly de- 

 stroyed, the Susquehanna nearly so, and those of the Delaware were run 

 at a loss. The mountain lakes were in a bad condition, and the trout 

 streams generally were either utterly ruined or yielded poor returns. 

 Pennsylvania was not alone in this deplorable situation. The waters of 

 the other Middle States and the New England States were little, if any, 

 better. General alarm was felt, and Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, 

 Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and Pennsylvania 

 appointed, through the respective legislatures, commissioners to investi- 

 gate the extent of the trouble and report on the best method of restor- 

 ing the fishing interests. Pennsylvania's commissioner was Mr. James 

 Worrall, of Harrisburg. His appointment was the result of a conven- 

 tion held in Harrisburg in the early part of 1866. At this convention a 

 law based on a Massachusetts enactment of the year previous was drawn 

 with great care and passed promptly by the legislature, then in session, 

 and signed by the Governor on March 30. This law, after reciting that 

 by the constructiou of a dam across the Susquehanna shad, salmon and 

 other fish were prevented from passing up the said stream to the great 

 detriment and injury of persons and communities along said river, pro- 

 vided that the several companies owning or interested in dams on the 

 Susquehanna, or in the North or West branches of the same, between 

 tidewater and Wilkes-Barre on the West Branch, should, within six 

 months from the passage of the act, erect such under-gates, sluices, 

 chutes, or other devices in all dams as would permit the free passage of 

 shad, salmon and other fish up said streams. 



A second section of the law provided that, if the owners of said dams 

 neglected or refused to construct sluices as would allow the free passage 

 of fish up the said river within six months after the j)assage of the act, 

 they should be liable to a fine of two hundred dollars, to be recovered 

 as debts of like amount are recoverable by law. 



As soon as the act was passed and became a law, Mr. Worrall entered 

 upon his duties and endeavored to enforce its provisions. 



Finding that the Tide Water Canal Company was under obligation 



