Fish, Fwhing ond Fisheries of Pennsylvania. 45 



July 3. Four models on that day were set in a dam erected for the 

 purpose in Paxtang, or Paxton creek, at Harrisburg-, the competitors 

 beine: H. S. Dimm, of Newport; S. M. Gross, of Shamokiu dam; G. S. 

 Burr, of Lewisburg, and Krause & Updegrove, of Hamsburg. Besides 

 these, G. W. Parsons and Peter Fraley, of Columbia, each showed 

 models in a second dam, and J. Krup, of Columbia, exhibited one 

 farther down the stream. None of these models was accepted, how- 

 ever, but a modification of a plan submitted by C. E. Whitnej', at one 

 time a resident of Harrisburg, was tried. 



This was simply an opening in the dam one hundred and twenty-five 

 feet wide at the face of the dam — the dam itself turning two L's up 

 stream and converging to within forty feet of each other, and being 

 parallel at that width for about forty feet. At the inlet, however, the 

 water was shoaled by a platform to the depth of five feet, which plat- 

 form extended down stream about forty feet, where its level was about 

 four feet above the smooth, rocky bottom of the river. This plan was 

 chosen because it came nearest to the form of a break in the dam, and 

 breaks appeared to have been the most successful fish-ways known up 

 to that time. 



The work was not disturbed by the ice in the winter of 1879 and 1880, 

 but when the season of shad fishing came round, drawbacks to the suc- 

 cess of the fish-ways showed themselves. The dam does not lie exactly 

 at right angles to the current of the Susquehanna, so that in passing 

 through the fish-way, the water sagged, as it were, somewhat to the left 

 side. The shoaling platform extended some forty feet down stream 

 from the mouth of the fish- way. 



In front of it was deposited the debris from the old coffer dams, con- 

 sisting of cinder, and this was covered by a pavement of solid stones, 

 none weighing less than one hundred pounds and many heavier. The 

 oblique course of the water disturbed this and produced considerable 

 reaction, which in low water presented an obstacle to the upward pas- 

 sage of the fish. In addition to that, the low water permitted the work- 

 ing of seines on the very floor of the fishway, a circumstance which the 

 lawless fishermen were not slow to take advantage of, and they defied 

 the state authorities placed there to watch the fishway, and on one occa- 

 sion destroyed the state boat and ill-treated its crew. The Lancaster 

 authorities were applied to for a remedy and assistance against this 

 lawlessness, but the state police were informed that they had their 

 remedy already — that of any citizen for assault and battery. 

 I As may be imagined, against numerous bands of men united together, 

 far outnumbering the state police, this was an ineffective defense. Still, 

 although plainly the commission and their police were without sym- 

 pathy from the Lancaster authorities, they determined pluckily to do 

 what they could, and the latter were instructed to do their best to fasten 

 illegal acts upon individuals of these bands. These instructions were 



