Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-06-15
TaE COLUMniA FlsawAY.


In reply to letter from the eOltOf OF
the Recoro requesting information with
reference to the operation Of the tishway at
Columbia dam, this season, gentleman
fully informed and taking great interest in
the attempt to re-stock the SusQuehanna
with shad, writes
" The fish commissioners, alter having
tried q number of experiments and in their
experience finding that break in the
dam admitted more shad than any me-
chanical contrivance thought Of, at length
made an aperature in the Columbia dam,
initiating . break in its form. The first
seasons experiment was impeded by 0)
low water and (2) piratical fishing. The
first trouble could not be remedied the
second they hoped to have remedied by
the imprisonment of some pirates, which
was effected, nine Of them receiving six
months each.
''The second seasons experiment (this
season's) found moro pirates, and they
more determined than ever. There was
no way of putting them down except by
military force, as their numbers are esti-
mated at some 800. The commissioners
hardly cared to resort to the ultima ratio,
so for this second season the outlaws have
the day. Some means will be adopted
next season that will probably be effec-
tive.
"But, after all, the great cause Of tho
shad not getting up the Susqrehanna is
the legal fisheries below the dam, of
which in the space of forty miles or SO
there are between 800 and 400 regular
seines and some 500 gill nets. The num-
Der increases every year. There must
have been from 1OO, ,OOU to 2OO, 600 shad
taken between Columbia and Havre de
Grace this season. How any can get to
the upper river is a marvel !; yet shad
have been caught this year as high up as
Sunbury, having passed two dams.
"Nothing short of an armed and quite
numerous police will put down the un-
lawful fishing at Columbia. The fishway
is like break in the dam, and has be-
come more like one as it is more worn
away by the passing seasons. Breaks
have passed more fish that any fishways.
"But when the fishway's mouth is
crowded with nets constantly how can
they get throughe And, then, the 500
legal fisheries below the dam. What can
the up river folk expect? Yet an armed
police might do q great deal. Shall wo
have such force %
1t does not speak we'll for the local au-
thorities in York and Lancaster counties
that the effort of the state to assist the
shad in ascending the Susquehanna river
should be balked by violence. This trouble,
however, may readily be remedied. A
matter Of greater difficulty is to secure
the assent Of the state of Maryland to
such intermittent cessatiOns of fishing
during the running season as shall permit
the shad to ascend the river without mo-
lestation. The matter will come up be-
fore the Maryland Legislature in 1882.
Our own fish commissioners suggest that
fishing be permitted during the season ON
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Tho
Maryland commissioners object to this ar
rangement, but propose that there shall
be no fishing from Friday nights until
Monday mornings. The matter is one
that must finally be determined by legisla-
tion. The comfy that should exist be-
tween states ought to influence the Mary
land Legislature to make proper laws on
the subject and provide for their enforce.
ment. II the shad are permitted to 60 to
their old spawning grounds in the waters
Of this state there will soon be enough for
all. So much has been demonstrated by
what has already been done.
A Correspondents Review of 1t.
For the lNTELLI0ENCER,
Tho "gentleman fully and informed and
taking great interest in tho attempt to re-
stock the Susquehanna with shad," in re-
ply to letter of inquiry from the Record,
pckes fun at that paper by burlesquing the
situation at the Columbia dam and at the
same time affords the Columbia people no
end Of amusement in reading his disserta-
ton on shad, pirates and armed forces 1t
would be long story to detail how the
fish commissioners, after advertising for
plans for fishway, came to Columbia, ex-
amined the numerous models and unanim-
ously resolved that they (the commission
ers) could design better plans themselves,
and as a result we have mass Of battered
crib work and a pavement of cObble stone
which cost the state about SO, 600, and not
shad above town to show rs an equiv
alent.
The writer attributes the failure Of shad
passing up tho river to tho pirates, the
number of whom he modestly places at
800. Tho truth is there are just two bat
teries in operation at the dam and the
whole force on both will not aggregate a
score of men. One of the batteries is
running on the York county side, and tho
other near the broken down fish way. ..
As to numerous police :" II a squad
of country cOnstabulary can not rOut the
half score of outlaws, whom no Columbian
has ever defended in their violation of the
law, in less than thirty-fOur hours, We
mistake the efficiency of tho poorest Of
them.
The difficulty is, the fish wardens have
too good time at the expense Of the state
to make arrests, while they can draw a
salary for doing nothing. With them
"distance lends enchantmcnt." They cat
and drink, go to the dam and at the sight
of riverman will make better time up the
tow-path than the average thoroughbred.
If "breaks have passed more shad than
any fishways" why did the state sink $1O,
600 in patching up break which would
have answered every purpose. Nature
certainly never performed a cleaner job
than that in the Columbia dam, in which
the fish commissioner resolved to dump
the first instalment of the appropriation in
the shape of ashes, logs AID cObble stones.
The writer concludes with some serious
suggestions which every Columbian will
heartily endorse as the true state of things.
But, after all, the great cause Of shad
not getting up the Susquehanna is the
legal fisheries below the dam, etc." II
the 500 or more gill nets, which span the
river between Turkey Hill and Havre de
Grace, were torn out, the up-river people
could cat shad until surfeited.
Good Horses.
There is valuable mare on tho Speed
we'll farm in Elizabeth township, which is
owned by the Coleman estate and is man.
aged by George Youtz. She IS something
fast and An account Of her recentlv an