296 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



1840 au impassable dam was maiutaiued on the main river about a 

 mile above tlie head of the tide. As a natural result the salmon 

 became comparatively scarce. A sufficient breeding-ground, however? 

 remained open to them to prevent their utter extermination, and 

 they have continued to frequent the river in fluctuating numbers until 

 the present time. In 1858 the impassable dam on the main river fell 

 into disuse, and for a dozen years presented no obstacle to the ascent of 

 fish. Since the river was thus re-opened, the principal hinderance to the 

 increase of salmon has been the unreasonable persecution that they 

 have received at the hands of a lawless class of citizens. So unrelenting 

 has been the pursuit, with set-nets, dip-nets, spears, stones, and clubs, 

 that, in spite of the improved facilities for ascending the river, there 

 has been no marked increase. 



Salmon in the earlier stages of growth have been observed in the 

 Denny's much oftener tlian in rivers farther west. One observer 

 who has been familiar with the river and its fisheries for many years^ 

 says that in his boyhood, when salmon were i^lenty, he and his comrades 

 used to catch both salmon-smolts,* from five to seven inches long, and 

 parr, in great numbers. One or both of these are also now caught at 

 Denny sville by anglers, but in less numbers than formerly. Grilse are 

 sometimes taken in this river, but are not abundant. Mr. Lincoln says 

 that among thousands of salmon caught there that came under his own 

 observation, there were only five or six grilse. Even at this rate, how- 

 ever, they appear to be more plenty than in th e Penobscot. The average 

 size of the adult salmon in 1873 Mr. Lincoln estimates to be about ten 

 pounds of the preceding year. 



The total yield of Denny's Eiver for 1873 is estimated to have been 

 one thousand salmon. It was somewhat larger than in 1872. They 

 .were caught, as they have been for many years, in set-nets, at the narrows, 

 in tidal water, a short distance below Dennysville village, and with dip- 

 nets and spears in the vicinity of the dams. The number of set-nets 

 employed is ordinarily ten or twelve. They are simple straight nets, 

 forty feet long and about six feet deep, and take salmon by meshing 

 them. When set they run from the shore obliquely down stream, making 

 an angle of about forty-five degrees with the shore, the upper edge of 

 an eddy being a favorite place. They are fastened to the bottom, and 

 being only six feet high the tide covers them completely in two or three 

 hours after it begins to flow. The salmon are supposed to ascend with- 

 out any hinderance from the nets during flood tide, but on the ebb they 

 are thought to drop back in1;o the eddies and get caught in the nets. 



* Letter of Benjamin Lincoln. Mr. L. says : "We used to catcli great numbers of 

 what we boys tlieu called young salmon, little fellows from five to seven inches long, 

 with little silvery scales like a luiniature salmon, and also a little fellow with red 

 spots and bars, like a trout, only lighter colored ; these we also called young salmon. But 

 as the salmon have decreased witli us I notice that the boys catch less of these." 



