ATKINS THE SALMON AND ITS ARTIFICIAL CULTURE. 301 



miles, but it narrows rapidly as Ave proceed upward, aud at Cape Rosier, 

 thirteen miles above, it is only seven miles wide. Above this point it 

 wjdeus a little at Belfast, and then contracts at Fort Point to a width of 

 between two and three miles. Three miles above this is the mouth of 

 the river, which enters the bay by two channels, one on either side of 

 Wetmore Island, sometimes known as Orphan Island, and constitut- 

 iug the town of Verona. The total length of the bay is about thirty 

 miles, being but little more than its greatest breadth. Its area may 

 be roughly estimated at 400 square miles, exclusive of islands. Into 

 this broad bay the Penobscot Eiver discharges about 320 billions of 

 cubic feet of water per year,* or about 873 millions per day. Assuming 

 the mean depth of the bay to be 60 feet, its capacity is 400 millions of 

 cubic feet, and it follows that the volume of fresh water discharged 

 into it is sufficient to renew the whole volume of the bay in a little more 

 than a year. Probably the actual depth is greater than that assumed, 

 and the time required to replace the salt water with fresh would be con- 

 siderably longer. That part of the bay above Castiue, which first re- 

 ceives the water of the river, has an area of perhaps 60 square miles, 

 and, if we assume the average depth to be 8 fathoms, the river could 

 not fill it in less than three months. 



These figures are nearly all rough approximations, but tliey serve 

 to show, in a general way, the small comparative volume of the inflow- 

 ing fresh water, aud prepare us to believe that what with the tides, cur- 

 rents, winds, and other forces tending to bring in fresh supplies of sea- 

 water, the river can exert little influence in changing the constituents 

 of the water, except in the extreme upper end of the bay. The flow of 

 the tide turns the current of the river as far as Bangor in the summer, 

 and above Bucksport always. The water is quite salt at the latter 

 place, aud in the summer it is brackish at the former. 



The result of the action of the river-water in displacing or altering 

 marine forms of life in the bay, cannot be told with precision without 

 more extensive observations than I have been able to make ; but the 

 statement of a few facts will illustrate the degree of its influence. 



In several points of the bay are good hake grounds. Off Castiue is a 

 good ground for haddock, aud cod are also caught in that part of the 

 bay, both of them with their stomachs well filled with marine mollusks 

 and other animals. JS'ear Brigadier's Island is a favorite place for catch- 

 ing menhaden, and this species is common enough in' its season about 

 Bucksport. In the smelt-nets set from October to March, on the Bucks- 

 port aud Verona bridge, there are caught not only smelts and tom-cods 

 but great numbers of flounders, sculpins, skates, &c., and at times, es- 

 pecially in the early part of the season, shrimps and other small Crusta- 

 cea. Jelly fishes are not rare at the same point. The shores, even as 

 far up as this, are covered with a growth of fucus, and species of litto- 

 rina abound. On the other hand, I cannot recollect of ever seeing a 



* Wells's Water-power of Maine, p. 105. 



