294 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



increase, theu tliere was uo weir to interfere with ours. For tlie last ten 

 years or so, tliere Las been a weir a mile or two below ours, wliicli probably 

 diminislies our catch from what it otherwise would be. Last season 

 there were below the ' ledge ' three weirs of the kind which retain the 

 fish at high water, and three or four half- tide weirs above the ledge, two 

 of which, of each kind, were on the American side. For several years 

 l^revious there were none on the eastern side. And from about 1850 to 

 to 1860 our weir was the only one of the kind on the river. Prior to 

 that for a number of years there were none. 



"The principal fish caught in them, more particularly in ours, naming 

 them in the order in which they first come, though the different kinds 

 run into each other, are herring, codfish, alewives, salmon, sea-shad, 

 (but very few river-shad,) a kind of sea-alewife called blue-back, and 

 formerly small mackerel, but of late they seem to have forsaken the 

 river. Many other kinds in smaller quantities, but all help to make 

 fares. Salmon and alewives pay the best. The l-atter has increased a 

 hundred fold, I think, in the last ten years. 



"The salmon run larger some years than in others, perhaps an average 

 of two pounds in weight. Last season they ran large. With regard to 

 grilse my information is conflued to oar weir ; we occasionally catch 

 what we call young salmon, perhaps three or four a year, weighing 

 about three to five pounds. We also catch another kind, about the same 

 number, which were called grilse b}' those who fished here before us, 

 but which I think is a species of trout, unlike the young salmon, weigh- 

 ing perhaps from one to two and one-half pounds; large head, lean body, 

 dark color, and very inferior to young salmon for food ; some of these 

 have spawn. Twelve or fifteen years ago, more or less, Mr. Upham 

 Treat, of East])ort, put several salmon, perhaps ten, from our weir into 

 Shattuck's Lake, in the lower part of this town, the outlet of which is 

 in the upper part of Eobbinston. One season several years afterward, 

 (I cannot recall dates,) we caught more salmon than in any season be- 

 fore or since — more than our usual proportion, compared with those 

 caught at the head of the tide, as far as we learned, and of an unusual 

 uniformity in size. Our theory at the time was that they were the off- 

 spring of Treat's salmon ; that the stream being too small for them to 

 enter, and they not being inclined to go up the river, they dallied about 

 in that vicinity and got entrapped." 



The weir built by Mr. Wilson consists of a " hedge " and two inclos- 

 ures, the "big" and "little" pounds. The hedge runs from the shore 

 out to the entrance of the big pound, and is made of stakes, brush, and 

 net. The big pound is about sixty-two feet long and thirty feet wide, 

 and its entrance is sixteen feet wide. It is of the same material as the 

 hedge. From the big pound the fish pass through a passage-way, nine 

 inches wide at the bottom and fourteen at the top, into the little pound. 

 The little pound is circular in shape, about fourteen feet in diameter: 

 has a board floor raised several feet above the ground and walls of net- 



