424 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



portion of the island about the middle of July, remaining from three to four weeks. A little later 

 another school arrives, and remains about the same length of time. Formerly, a considerable 

 number of herring were taken in nets by the local fishermen, and vessels have occasionally visited 

 the region, securing full fares. For the past few years, however, the business has not been 

 prosecuted to any extent, and the fishing has been confined to the capture of bait by the local 

 fishermen. 



Though herring have been taken in small numbers in the vicinity of Castine for many years, 

 little seems to have been known of their abundance prior to 1874, when the bait fishermen engaged 

 in their capture with gill-nets. Spawning herring were found to be quite plenty, and two years 

 later the first vessels from the surrounding islands resorted to the region, securing full fares, which 

 were carried to Boston. From this date a fleet of four or five vessels have visited the locality 

 yearly, and they have invariably found fish fairly abundant. In 1880, according to Mr. George 

 Morey, of Castine, there were six vessels engaged in the fishery at that place. The fish are of 

 large size, averaging from twelve to thirteen inches in length. They arrive about the middle of 

 July and pass up the harbor for a distance of one to two miles above the village, where they 

 remain until the middle of August for the purpose of depositing their spawn. They are sometimes 

 so abundant that the water is literally filled with them as far down as the village; and instances 

 are on record where nets set just abreast of the wharves have been sunk by the weight of the fish 

 taken in them. 



Mr. Morey states that as soon as the school of spawning herring has disappeared, a large num- 

 ber of smaller or "sardine" herring are noticed in the harbor, where they remain till late in 

 the fall. 



According to Mr. S. T. Meeker, of North Haven, the first herring fishing of any note at 

 Crabtree Point was in 1870, but even then the fishery was of little importance, and for several 

 years u was carried on only by the local fishermen. In 1873 the fish were unusually plenty, and 

 during the height of the season they were taken in such numbers that many of the nets were sunk 

 as fast as they were put overboard. During this year one small vessel engaged in the fishery, 

 and .met with such success as to warrant others in visiting the region the following season. By 

 1875 the fleet had increased to twenty or twenty-five sail ; but in 1878 the herring arrived in such 

 small numbers that the fishermen lost heavily, and no vessels have visited the region since that 

 time. The absence of the fish in 1878 was exceptional, as shown by the catch of the local fisher- 

 men during the subsequent years. 



MATINICTJS ISLAND AND EBENCOOK HARBOR. Capt. J. W. Collins, who visited Matinicus 

 Island in the fall of 1879, says that the waters about its shores are among the best in the State for 

 the summer herring fisheries, and that vessels from various fishing towns between Cape Cod and 

 Mount Desert resort to the locality to obtain their supply of bait, which they buy from the local 

 fishermen, and from the small vessels that make a specialty of this fishery during the height of the 

 season. Herring were formerly peculiarly abundant, but for the past ten years the catch has been 

 considerably below the average. The fishery is prosecuted wholly by means of nets about the 

 smaller islands in the locality, and a considerable number of the resident fishermen spend a greater 

 part of the summer in netting the fish. Captain Collins estimates that in the summer of 1879 about 

 2,000 barrels of herring, in addition to a quantity of small mackerel, were taken in the region. 



Ebeucook Harbor, situated in the northwestern part of the island of Southport, is said by Mr. 

 William T. Maddocks to be a favorite feeding-ground for small herring from August to December. 

 According to the same authority, the fishery began at this point as early as 1806, when a number 

 of local fishermen made large catches by the use of torches and gill-nets. The fishery gradually 



