Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-05-01


A correspondent of the Baltimore Sun
of Wednesday gives an interesting account
of the shad and herring fisheries in the
Susquehanna river and about the head
waters of the bay. He says
At this time three floats and one shore
are in operation above the railroad bridge
at Havre de Grace, and five floats and five
or six shores below the bridge. Spesutia
island, below Hayre de Grace, is the chief
shore, where Messrs. Littleton Green and
j. NJ. Simmons carry on largo op-
eratiOns. Besides Spesutia there is
Carpenters Point, worked by G.
Washington Barnes Cranberry, by
Jsseph Fl. Carver & Co.; the shores Of
Wilson Brothers, CarutherS, and some
smaller seines, while higher up on the
island near Lapidum is the shore Of Spen-
Ger Brothers Il Co. This shore, how
ever, during an extra high tide, is no shore
at all. All the Land Of the little island is
under water, and only the platforms on
which the steam and horse power wind
lasses are worked, the mess house floors
and the bushes, remain above the tide. In
this state of affairs the fishermen have to
work above the knees in water most of the
day. The fishing boats are operated
stoose eho oiiuS0 Dy OoOISo u. ouVeE anu
| Cyrus A. Courtney, William Ewing aud
John b. Coale. The floats below Havro
de Grace are operated by Jacob Osmond &
Co. (2), A. F. Brown s Co., William b.
Michael s. Co., and Serricks & Penning.
Fishing from floats is peculiar to the
mouth OF the Susquehanna river. The
floats have houses built Oh RATS or scOws,
which are anchored by grOwsers in the
stream, where an apron is let down until
it reaches the bottom, thus forming an ar
tificial shore on which the seine is hauled.
Horses or steam may be used for the.
windlasses. Comfortable quarters are pro-
vided for the fisherman, and the cluster
of "shanties looks like q small village on
the water. When the season is over the
village is tOwed to harbor, and remains
during the rest of the year, in use, some
times, for other purposes.
| The correspondent obtained the views
of fishermen in reference to the results
of the system of artificial propagation Of
fish:
! He aseertainetl that =" fishermen gener-
ally concur in the report this season that
the run of shad and herring has been SO
far larger than last year. While the
seines do not land many shad in proper
tion to herring, the catch has been, up to
this date, nearly twice as large as in 1879.
Then it was considered good luck if IS or
$50 shad came in at a haul now the
number is nearly doubled every time, and
the gillers all take basketsful every
night. Mr.. George b. Silver says
he has noticed marked improve
ment in the number of shad this sea-
son, and is inclined to attribute it to the
effect of artificial propagation in Mary
land waters. A number of other fisher
ermen expressed themselves in similar
terms. Some % or 80 salmon have been
caught this season at Silver " COurtney's s
float, and other fish of the same kind have
been heard Of elsewhere, but Mr.. Silver
says they are salmon which belong to the
Susquehanna, and are not the California
fish introduced by artificial propagation.
The Susquehanna is a river which has
always had salmon, but Of late years they
have been nearly extinct. All the fisher
men object to the black bass which has
been introduced. They fear that this vO-
racious fish will prcdOminate hereafter and
T drive away the sllad and herring. which
are native to our waters.
; Mr.. Herman Spencer says the SusIue-
, hanna has been greatly benefited by the
operations of the fish commission. AS a
practical man, he suggests that the waters
of the state should be replenished on u still
greater scale. He thinks that the state
should appoint skilled men to be with the
fishing floats and on the shores throughout
the season to strip every ripe shad and turn
the fish out into the water every day a.
, soon as they are hatched.