The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1907-10-31
THE STURGEON COMES NO MORE
Recoliections of a Philosophical Fish
in the Upper Delaware River.
From the New York sun.

IN the Upper Delaware River.
From the New York sun
Il remember well the days" said a
nan from Pike county, Pa. when the
gabled and turreted sturgeon was wont
to wander from the waters of Delaware
Bay, essaying to escape, perhaps, from
the caviare hunters of New Castle and
adjacent parts, and push his way up
the riffs and rocky shadows into the
rivers purling upper waters, where his
coming al watched by men with
guns and men with spears and men
with clubs and men with rope halters
and men with eel racks, but the stur-
geon doesn't visit the upper Delaware
any more.
Perhaps one reason for this Is that
the fishermen OF Delaware Bay, hav-
ing discovered long ago the value of
this queer and simple. yet formidable
looking water dweller as a provider OF
merchantable stuff. have devised way
and means to confine 1t within the
boundaries of their own bailiwick.
Another reason may be that there is
no longer water enough in the Della
ware river during the season when the
sturgeon would wander up stream to
afford the big and ungainly fish ma
terial for his convenient navigation.
The sturgeon is tenacious and
adapts himself good naturedly to cir
cumstanccs. so that if it might so
chance that he found himself within
the beleasuerment of some small and
shallow landlocked waters he would
with contentment abide there, letting
the sun smite his corrugated back and
the storm pelt 1t the While he rooted
and wallowed in the half disclosed
bed of his mischanced environment
until such time as the plying flood
might come to let him forth into the
unrestricted reaches of the flowing
river.
In the days when this big fish was
40 rare sight in the upper Delaware,
| nave known II sturgeon, having run
a joust with some challenging eel rack
and been endorsed, so to speak, to lie
IN the NAV of that same eel rack with
the ~aggravating sound about him of
water, water everywhere, but not any
drop for his, for a good twenty-four
hours. calmly and uncomplainingly
waiting for the eel rack man to come
and do the rest.
THE man having come and tumblet
he patient fish into his boat and taker
It ashore, L nave known that same
sturgeon to be hauled with ropes q
nile over rough and stony ground, then
Jumped into a pond not any too big
Tor him to turn around in and with
40 more water in 1t than he could
rink at a draught or two, If it were
he surgeons habit to drink water,
md being released therein to turn,
with no trace of malice or resentment
n his eye, though with abrasions a
many In evidence OF his domes and
,urrets, and accept from his captor or
my one else. peanuts. tobacco. apple
:ores or even shingle nails. seemingly
equally grateful tor each Offering.
Il have known such n sturgeon after
perhaps a fortnight OF durance to be
LIBERATED through the mercy of some
nan of tender heart and returned to
he river, there at once to renew his
attack on the eel rack and to be found
lext day again ~vanquished and walt
ng for events.
II sometimes think that 1t was the
vel racks that 'ticed the sturgeon tc
upper Delaware waters, and that he
oved TO assail them and try their met
lie. The law abolished the eel racks
years ago.
1T was at about the times the eel
.acks began to disappear from the
DIVER that the surgeons visits to the
upper waters became fewer and farth-
sr between, until now they are nc
more. 1t might be. after all. tina the
sturgeon went thither to fight the eel
racks. and with the passing Of the
eel rack he saw no further attraction
in those waters.
But while the sturgeon can get
along first rate in little water, and
will abide his time to escape to larger,
he is not a land travelling fish. so that
Il he should undertake to Journey
rom tide upward in the Delaware in
these later days he would be stalled
before he had gone many miles. He
would have to do some heroic work
II he got even as far as Easton.
boy that he could not pass.
There are scores Of places between
Easton and the Water Gap where peo-
pie may cross the Delaware dry shod.
The historic spot where Washington
crossed the Delaware on hat fierce
winter night, against a deep and Ice
choked tide, Is now a chain of shallow
divided by dry and g%listening
stones. where once the wide chan
mel ran.
Where there once were islands be-
tween Easton n the upper waters
there are islands no more ne chan
mel being entirely dry-as cry as bone.
all the way up the river. A man might
walk for miles and not wet his shoes.
so. perhaps. it ,s Just as well for
the sturgeon that they no longer set
hearts on revisiting old Genes
get within 100 miles of them.
ANY how. they wouldn't have any
of the old time fun, for the eel racks
are gone, and the men who used to
watch for them with guns and lassos
n clubs and spears are too busy
nowadays with the black pass and
wall-eyed pike, which have come in
since the surgeons gala time, to Law
off and ngage them as Of yore."
The Bearded Ghost.
MARK Twain on the Minnetonka.'
said a Duluth man, talked a good deal
about Christian Science. to which he
seems to be very strongly opposed
hn1tAun Z N fnnfR hat hn 40,