The daily gazette., 1880-05-04
rhe ausaueh anna FIsherles.

A correspondent of the Baltimore
Sun of Wednesday gives an interest,"
ing 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 rail-
road bridge at Havre de Grace, and
five floats and five or six shores below
the bridge. Spesutia island, below
Havre de Grace, Is the chief shore,
where Messrs. Littleton Green and
j. M. Simmons carry ON large opera
tions. Besides Spesutia there is Car
penter's Point, worked by G. WASH
ington Barnes Cranberry, by Joseph
II. Carver g. Co. the shores of Wilson
Brothers, Caruthers, and some smaller
seines, while higher up on the island
near Lapidum is the shore of Spencer
Brothers & Co. This shore, however,
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 windlasses 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
above the bridge by George Is. Silver
and Cyrus A. Courtney, William
Ewing and John B. Coale. The floats
below Havre de Grace are operated by
Jacob Osmond & Co. (2), A. F. Brown
Il Co., William B. Michael g. Co., and
Serricks & Penning.
Fishing from floats is peculiar to
the mouth of the Susquehanna river.
The floats have houses built on RATS
Or scows, which are anchored by grow
sers in the stream, where an apron is
let down until it reaches the bottom,
thus forming an artificial shore on
which the seine is hauled. Horses or
steam may be used for the windlasses.
Comfortable quarters are provided for
the fishermen, and the cluster of
"shanties" looks like 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, sometimes, for other pur-
poses.
The correspondent obtained the views
OF fishermen in reserence to the results
Of the system Of artificial propog alton of
fish
lie ascertained that FISHERMEN gener-
ally concur in the report this season that
the run Of shad and herring has been so
lar larger than last year. While the
seines do not land many shad in proper
ton to herring, the catch has been, up to
this date, nearly twice as large as in 1779.
Then it was considered good luck if 72 or
$50 sbad came in at 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 improvement in the
number of shad this season, and Is in
cluded 10 attribute 1t to the effect OF ar
tifical propagation in Maryland waters.
A number of other fishermen expressed
themselves in similar terms. Some rs
or 80 salmon have been caught this sea-
son at Silver &c Courtney'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
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
fishermen object to the black bass which
has been introduced. They fear that vo-
racious fish will predominate hereafter
and drive away the shad and herring,
which are native to our waters.
Mr.. Herman Spencer says the Susque-
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 replenish-
ad on a still greater scale. He thinks
that the state should appoint skilled
men to be with the fishing floats and on
he shores throughout the season to strip
,very ripe shad and turn the fish out in
o the water every day as soon as they
ire Matched,