THE RIVER FISHERIES OF MAINE. 093 



* 



In other localities experience and practice' vary a little from those of Damariscotta. At 

 Woolwich they use clam-worms for bait; at Waldoborough, clam- worms, smelts, eels, fresh bed', 

 and minnows. At Saco there are more ambitious houses, (! feet long and nearly as wide, with 

 walls, 5 feet 9 inches high, and costing *17 to $20; in such a house a man uses six lines made 

 fast to a bar overhead and dropping through a hole (5 feet long; fishing mainly at. night, he places 

 a kerosene lamp with a white paper shade, at each end of the hole to attract the smelts, and in 

 one corner stands a coal stove. 



The hook fishery is pursued l>y people of many different callings, who find a lack of employment 

 in the winter farmers, laborers, and mechanics of various trades, comparatively few of whom are 

 engaged in fishing at other seasons. Some of them arc strictly amateurs and catch merely for 

 their own tables; many others dispose of their surplus in the local markets, but a very lar^e 

 number follow the occupation steadily and send their fish to distant markets, mainly I'.ostcm and 

 New York. Altogether there is no branch of the river fisheries that contributes so much to the 

 comfort and well-being of the local population as this. 



MARKETING SMELTS. Smelts are all marketed and consumed fresh. It is the common 

 practice to freeze them, and then forward to market in boxes and barrels. It has been recently 

 discovered that a partial five/ing, leaving the fish flexible, is a better preparation for transportation 

 than freezing them stiff; besides. -,\ much larger quantity of the flexible smells can 1 e put into a 

 barrel or a box of given dimensions. It is also a recent discovery that without freezing smelts can 

 be shipped to Boston or New York in a tight fish barrel filled with iced water, a large lump of i< e 

 being placed in the middle. This is a very satisfactory method to the dealers, the fish opening in 

 fine condition with a very fresh appearance and meeting with a ready sale ; but it involves flic 

 transport of a great deal of water and ice, and for that reason is not much employed except in 

 time of warm weather when freezing cannot be effected, and dry packing is not safe. 



Probably the quantity of smelts consumed in Maine does not exceed 10 per cent, of the total 

 catch. Of the remainder nearly all fii'd a market in Boston and New York, the latter taking 

 more than half. Thus, of 254,000 pounds shipped to those two points from Bath, Woolwich, 

 \\ aldoborongh, Warren, and Thomaston, 138,000 pounds went to New York, and 116,000 pounds 

 to Boston. 



STRIPED BASS (ROCCUS LINEATUS.) 



NATURAL HISTORY. The data for a complete account of the natural history of this species 

 do not exist, and as there is a special lack of knowledge of its life in Maine rivers, the present 

 notice will properly be very brief. The bass is found in substantially all the brackish waters of 

 the State, and ascend the rivers a short distance at various seasons of the year. On the Kennebe,. 

 ii used to ascend the main river as far as Waterville. and the Sebasiicook a short distance above 

 its mouth ; but since the building of the dam at Augusta that place has been the limit of its migra- 

 tion. The principal run is iu the month of June, at which time it feeds greedily, apparently 

 ascending the rivers for that purpose. It continues to feed in weedy coves and bays till Novem- 

 ber. In the winter great numbers of young, 2 or 3 inches long, are. found in the rivers, and many 

 of them fall into the bag-nets and are captured along with smelts and torn cods. Larger indi- 

 viduals appear in many cases to retreat to quiet bays and coves of fresh water in the lower parts 

 of the rivers, and pass the winter in a. state of semi hibernation. 



There are some facts that favor the view that bass spawn in the rivers. For instance, a male 

 with ripe milt has been observed on the Kennebec as far up as Augusta about the 1st of July. The 

 fishermen of Merry meeting Bay think that the\ spawn in the summer, "because thej are to he found 



