FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 131 



Union, Penobscot, St. George, Medomak, Sheepscot, Androscoggin, Kennebec, 

 Royal, Presumpscot, Saco, Mausam, Piscataqua, and Merrimac. 40 Since the begin- 

 ning of the past century, however, one New England river after another was so 

 obstructed by dams that by 1S87 salmon regularly entered the St. Croix, Dennys, 

 East Machias, Machias, Penobscot, Sheepscot, Kennebec, and Androscoggin only. 

 The Kennebec was still an important salmon river as late as 1895, but at present the 

 Penobscot and Dennys alone see a regular run, though odd salmon still enter other 

 streams. Along the Canadian shores of our Gulf a few salmon still run in the 

 Tusket, Salmon, and Annapolis Rivers, many in the Shubenacadie River in 

 Nova Scotia, some in the Petit Codiac, and great numbers in the St. John in New 

 Brunswick, the latter still being a famous salmon river, while odd fish are seen in 

 the St. Croix now that the sawdust pollution is not as bad as formerly. 



The fate of the salmon in the Merrimac 41 typifies its history in the rivers from 

 which it is now barred. Salmon spawned plentifully in the upper tributaries of the 

 stream in question, especially the Pemigewasset, as late as 1793 (in 1790 the run was 

 so abundant in the lower river that 60 to 100 a day was the usual catch with a 90- 

 yard seine near the mouth at Amesbury), but from that time on, with the construc- 

 tion of one dam after another, the run of salmon steadily dwindled until in 1847 the 

 completion of the dam at Lawrence completely barred the upper reaches of the river. 

 For some years thereafter salmon congregated below this dam in spring and summer 

 vainly endeavoring to surmount it, but since 1859 or 1860, by which date the last 

 salmon hatched above had lived its span of life, there has been no run of salmon in the 

 Merrimac nor have any spawned there with the possible exception of a few lifted 

 over the dam by hand. Nevertheless a few salmon have been seen and caught in 

 the lower Merrimac year after year. There were, indeed, enough of these fish to 

 yield a supply of eggs for artificial hatching up to 1893, but attempts at restocking 

 by this means have proved vain and will until proper fishways are provided at all 

 the dams. In 1896 there seems to have been what almost might be described as a 

 "run" — for salmon were seen leaping below the Lawrence dam nearly every day 

 from June 10 to July 25, often 10 or 20 at a time, and a few were lifted over — but 

 this proved merely a flurry, for only a few were seen in 1898, 6 only (at Lowell) in 

 1899, 7 in 1900, 11 in 1901, and since then not a single Atlantic salmon has been 

 credibly reported in the Merrimac, although the director of the Massachusetts Divi- 

 sion of Fisheries and Game has made special inquiry of the local wardens. 42 Nor 

 is it likely that salmon would still run in the Penobscot were it not for the artificial 

 propagation carried on there by the United States Bureau of Fisheries, so seriously 

 is the river obstructed. 



The early extirpation of salmon from so many New England rivers naturally 

 resulted in a great change in the distribution of salmon in the open Gulf, clearly 

 reflected in the catch. Thus in 1889 more than 150,000 pounds (about 15,000 

 fish) were taken in the weirs and traps along the Maine coast and in its river mouths 



» Atkins (1887, p. 679) has collected much information on the local history of salmon in northern New England. 

 11 Lyman and Reed, 1866, pp. 3-41. 



« One or two small "salmon" that have been caught were probably landlocked, running down from tributaries stocked with 

 this fish. 



