306 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



The "leader" corresponds with the rim of the poiiud-uet described 

 above. It is built of stakes and brush loosely driven. Its length is 

 governed by the shape of the river-bed and some other circumstances, 

 such as the character and direction of the currents. Most fishermen 

 aim to have their pounds located entirely beyond low-water mark, and 

 frequently the water where they are situated is 15 or 20 feet deep when 

 the tide is out. The leader extends thence to the shore. The first or 

 great pound is a heart-shaped inclosure, about 60 feet wide, having an 

 entrance 22 feet wide, nearly in the middle of which is the outer end of 

 the leader. Stakes and brush compose the walls of the great pound. 

 At the apes of this inclosure is an entrance 3 or 4 feet wide to the second 

 pound, which resembles the first in shape, but is couimonly provided 

 with a board floor near low-water level, and has walls of netting instead 

 of brush. An openiugonly a foot wide leads into the fish-j)ound, which 

 is. also provided with a floor.* Fish swimming along the shore, whether 

 ascending or descending the river, encounter the leader, and in trying to 

 get around it are led into the great pound, and the shape of this is such 

 that they rarely escape out by the way they came in, but readily find 

 the entrance to the next pound, from which, in like manner, they pass 

 on to the fish-pound, where they are left by the retreating tide on the 

 bare floor. * 



Both weirs and pound-nets depend for their success on tlie disposition 

 of fish to move in straight lines when there is no obstacle in the way. 

 On being turned from their course by the leader, they swim, in the direc- 

 tion it gives them, straight into the great pound, whose entrance is so 

 wide that they see only one side of it at once. Were the opposite side 

 of the entrance or of the pound in sight, the fish might be deterred from 

 entering and turn back. Once within the great pouud, they swim straight 

 to the opposite side, meeting which, they turn and follow it. If fright- 

 ened at the narrowness of the passage into the second pound, they turn 

 back and follow the side of the great pound back toward the entrance, 

 but by the time they reach that point the curve of the pound has given 

 tliem a new direction, which carries them directly ijast the entrance. 

 Thus they rarely find their way out, and, becoming soon familiar with 

 the walls of their inclosure, venture through the gap that leads them 

 into the second pound. 



The weirs of the Penobscot are not very expensive. It is estimated 

 that one can be maintained at a cost of $60 a year. They generally 

 occupy the same site year after year. The site is fixed b}' experience 

 in each individual case, and hardly any rule can be given that will guide 

 in the selection of one on an untried shore. There are long stretches of 

 shore where no one attempts nowadays to build weirs, but in most cases 

 these sites have been tried in former times and found unprofitable. 

 Weirs are built in the river as early in the spring as the state of the 

 water will permit, and are for the most part in operation before the close 



* See illustratiou in tbe appended plates. 



