THE FISHERIES OF THE SUSQUEHANNA RIVER. 653 
seen four eels fall out of the abdominal cavity of a shad, when no eels were visible, when the fish 
came over the gunnel. They had devoured the viscera, which always seems to be the first portion 
sought by them. 7 
“The habit is to run the net as soon as it is all out, and take the fish out immediately, before 
they can be injured by theeels. The eels never mesh; they are too slippery to get entangled. In 
the shoal fishing, when the weather beeomes warm, the ‘eel-cuts, as these are called, often out- 
number the marketable shad. The fishermen salt down the better ones for their winter food.” 
“The net is run twice or three times and is then taken up. Little else than shad is taken; a few 
striped bass and a few suckers are occasionally found. The captures, to each boat with two men, 
number from ‘water hauls’ to several hundred shad. : 
“¢ After the first tide’s fishing the boatsanchor. Often several tie fast to another anchored oue, 
and the men while away the hours to the next tide in gossip and yarn spinning, or go to sleep in 
the bottom of the boat. It often happens when anchored apart from the rest, they find themselves, 
in the small hours of the morning, chilly and solitary in the middle of the bay. 
“Quiet and harmony is the ordinary state of their communion, although the strife for goud 
berths sometimes arouses a dissension. An attempt to anticipate the line of boats in laying out the 
nets at too early a stage of the tide calls forth sudden and certain penalty. Not ouly the boats on 
each side, but some of those from a distance, crowd around and unite their protests, and when these 
are unavailing the offender is hemmed in by the boatmen, who, in a halfjocose manner, yet with a 
fully in earnest purpose, set their nets across the line of direction he has started in ‘ surrounding 
him, If he is still obstinate enough to persist or to attempt to cut the nets which are in his way, a 
melee ensues, and some sturdy boatman is apt to belabor him into reason with an oar, public 
opinion favoring a certain amount of this kind of punishment. 
“The boats used in the head of the bay are small, and the mutton-leg sails have no provision 
for reefing. The foresail is much larger, and sail is shortened by unstepping the foremast and put- 
ting the mainsail in its place. At the approach of a squall they hurriedly pull in the nets and scat- 
ter like a shoal of mullets when a porpoise appears among them. They get caught out occasional y, 
and getting to the lee of the shoal or the island, they sometimes lie with the killock out all day.” 
FYKES AND POUND-NETS.—A large number of fykes are in use from Havre de Grace to Co- 
lumbia in summer for the capture of perch, rock, and catfish. Under the Maryland law the use 
of pound-nets is prohibited, and their absence from the Susquehanna is a striking feature to one 
accustomed to seeing them in such general use in other parts of the bay. 
StTaTISTICS.—The history of the impoverishment of the Susquehanna fisheries is the same as 
for the Potomac. 
The minimum of production was reached in 1878, from which time there has been a gradual 
and steady increase. , 
The Susquehanna River. 
Number. Value. 
Men emiployed siiinsccassuisecnnawaanneuns DOES Cocccmwanwes 
NOU6 Ses ceerciceciswenese cee cdeesesicrenceces: *8, 342 $97, 450 
Ponta osc a veconcssaseecasdncndneeyecesoe 834 43, 510 
Products. 
Sad cons oceccciecniesncesccincceyia pounds..| 2,149, 000 96, 705 
Herring ss2cceceersxeareceseseaceese do....| 3,483, 333 62, 700 
Cathal sn -aiccccnccse inc iciienceiecetedt do.... 200, 000 12, 000 
Perch and rock.....-..c.+-------+-+ do.... 60, 000 .. 6, 000 
*Four pounds; 36 haul-seines ; 302 gill-nets; 3,000 fyke-nets. 
