Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1907-11-01
THE STURGEON COMES NO MORE
RecoIIections Of a Philosophical Fish
in the Upper Delaware River.
From The New York sun.

in the Upper Delaware River.
From The New York Sun.
II remember well the days said a
nan from Pix county, Pa, when the
} gabled and turreted sturgeon was wont
to wande from the waters OF Delaware
Bay, essaying to escape. perhaps, from
the aviar hunters Of New Castle and
adjacent parts. and push his way up
the riffs and rocky shadows into the
rivers purling upper waters, where MS
coming was 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 or
this queer and simple, yet formidable
looking water dweller as a provider Of
understandable stuff, ave devised ways
and means to confine II within the
boundaries of their own baillwick.
Another reason may be that there is
no longer water enough In the Della
ware river during the season when the
sturgeon would wander mp 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
cumstances, so that II II might so
chance hat he found himself within
the beleaguerment 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
end 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 lowing
river.
In the days when this big fish was
no rare sight in the upper Delaware,
| have known Il 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 com,
and do the rest.
The man having come and tumbled
he patient fish into his boat and taker
It ashore, L have known that same
sturgeon to be hauled with ropes 3
nile over rough and stony ground, Their
Bumped into a pond not any too big
'or him to turn around in and with
10 more water in 1t han he could
rink at a draught or two, If IL were
he surgeons habit to drink water
md being released therein to turn,
Gith no trace OF malice or resentment
n his eye, though with abrasions q
many In evidence on his domes and
urrets, and accept from his captor or
my one else, peanuts. tobacco, apple
.ores or ever shingla 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 II returned to
he river, there at once to renew his
attack IN the eel rack and to be found
text day again vanquished and watt
ng for events.
Il sometimes think that 1t was the
eel racks that 'ticed the sturgeon &c
upper Delaware waters, and that he
owed to assail them and try their met
lie. The law abolished the eel racks
gears ago.
1T was at about the times the ee,
.acks began to disanpear from the
liver that the surgeons visits TO the
upper waters became fewer and farth-
CT between, until now they are nc
more. 1t might be, after all. that the
sturgeon went thither TO fight the eel
-acks. 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
Z he should undertake to journey
from 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
IL he got even as far as Easton.
Above 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 that fierce
winter night. against a deep and Ice
choked tide, is now a chain OF shallow
pools divided by dry and glistening
stones, where once the wide chan
mel ran.
Where there once were islands be-
tween Easton and the upper waters
there are islands no more, one chan
mel being entirely dry-as dry as bone.
And so the shallow and dry spots go
all the way up the river. A man might
walk for miles and not wet his shoes.
$50. perhaps. II Is Just as well for
the sturgeon that they no longer set
their hearts on revisiting old scenes
IN the upper Delaware. They couldn't
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
and clubs and spears are too busy
nowadays with the black bass and
wall-eyed pike, which have come in
since the surgeons gala time. TO lay
off and engage them as of yore."