46 Fish, Fishing and Fisheries of Pennsylvania. 



faithfully carried out during the season, and at the end the commission- 

 ers had the satisfaction of having secured the imprisonment of some 

 half dozen or more delinquents for their illegal acts. 



Notwithstanding all this, however, large numbers of shad succeeded 

 in passing up the river. At an island, some few miles above the Colum- 

 bia dam, a catch of one thousand five hundred was made, and at 

 other points between Columbia and Juniata the catch was quite respect- 

 able, reaching at the main batteries to some five thousand. Below the 

 dam to Turkey Hill, a distance of little less than five miles, in 1879, 32,- 

 000 were taken and in 1880, 47,000. 



In the latter year the commissioners addressed a letter to the Mary- 

 land commissioners, suggesting that shad fishing should be made free 

 to aU comers on the Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in each week of 

 the season, making the balance of the week a "close time" in which fish- 

 ing by all parties should be prohibited. The Maryland commissioners, 

 however, stated their inability to do this thing, first, because the Mary- 

 land legislature would not meet until two years later, and in the second 

 place they considered the "close time" proposed impracticable. They 

 suggested, however, a shorter one, namely, from Friday night to Mon- 

 day morning and the total cessation of fishing on the 10th of June. 



After the first two or three years the hatching of shad seems to have 

 been abandoned by the earlier members of the commission, for, accord- 

 ing to the reports of 1879-80, it is found that the 450,000 shad fry 

 placed in the Susquehanna had been received from the United States 

 Fish Commissioners at Havre de Grace. 



In 1881, Mr. Howard J. Eeeder retired from the fish commission, and 

 Arthur Maginnis, of Swift Water, was appointed, and Hon. B. L. Hewitt 

 was placed at the head. Beyond a few attentions to the fishways al- 

 ready in the dams, nothing was done in this important matter. The 

 hands of the commissioners were tied for lack of funds, and they could 

 do little more than make repairs . Strong efforts were also made to 

 bring illegal fishermen to justice, but as they had almost uniformly the 

 sympathies of the grand juries, before whom their cases came, but little 

 was accomplished. Through the United States Commission there were 

 received and put into the Susquehanna and Juniata in 1881, 3,500,000 

 shad fry, but none in 1882. 



In 1883, there was almost an entire change in the make-up of the com- 

 mission, only Arthur Maginnis, of Swift Water, being retained. John 

 Gay, of Greensburg, now manager of the Pennsylvania exhibit of the 

 Columbian Exposition at Chicago, was made president, and with him 

 were appointed as associates H. H. Derr, Wilkes Barre; A. M. Spang- 

 ler, Philadelphia: Aug. Duncan, Chambersburg, and Charles Porter, 

 Corry. To these gentlemen must be given the credit of introducing the 

 only fishway which has proved eminently successful. For two years or 

 more they carefully studied various models submitted, but all which 



