ATKINS THE SALMON AND ITS . ARTIFICIAL CULTURE. 309 



erable numbers of salmon both earlier aud later; but whether their suc- 

 cess IS owing to exceptional situations or to lack of competition is a 

 matter of doubt. It is believed that salmon can be raught each year 

 earlier near the mouth of Duck Trap Stream than at any other point in 

 the western bay, and this alleged fact is attributed to the attraction of 

 the fresh water. 



In the middle of the bay the capture of salmon is followed every 

 year on Long Island at twelve or fifteen stations scattered along its 

 western side. Nets alone are now used. A single weir was built at the 

 southern extremity of the island, for about ten years, ending in 18G8. 

 About thirty salmon a year were caught in it. Like ordinary salmon- 

 weirs, it was made of netting fine enough to catch herring, and besides 

 these it took also menhaden and mackerel. On the western side of the 

 island no salmon-nets are set. The reason for their absence I have not 

 investigated, but the land slopes down the shore more gradually on that 

 side than on the other, and it may be inferred that there is a corre- 

 sponding difference in the inclination of the bottom, which may aifect 

 either the course of the salmon in their migrations or the facilities for 

 setting and working sets. 



In Belfast Bay no salmon are caught within four miles of the port 

 of Belfast on the north shore, and 14 miles on the south shore; so that 

 from the upper limit of the net- fishery there is a reach of 18 miles where 

 no salmon-fisheries are carried on. The fishery begins again near the 

 harbor of Searsport. Here, and at all points above, it is carried on 

 with weirs instead of nets. The yield is much better than it is in the 

 net-fishing below. This may in part be attributed to the greater efft- 

 ciency of the weirs, but I think, after making all allowances on that 

 score, there 'is still a difference that can only be attributed to the 

 presence of a greater number of salmon -near shore. The weirs on Sear's 

 Island and on Cape Jellisou are among the most productive in the 

 whole bay and river. In 1873 there were fewer weirs built here than 

 usual ; on Sear's Island only one instead of six, and on the south side 

 of Cape Jellisou only seven instead of ten. It may be mentioned, as 

 illustrating the vicissitudes of the business as well as the occasion^ 

 irregularities of the movements of the salmon, that while some of the 

 weirs on the south side of Cape Jellisou caught fewer salmon than 

 ordinary, one on the west side, in Stockton Harbor, (No. 61,) caught 

 twice as many.* The average catch of the former in 1873 was 91 

 salmon a weir. 



It is worthy of remark that the weir that had such exceptional luck 

 was built on a gently-declining bottom, with a long leader, aud was in 

 a somewhat sheltered position, while the others were built on a steeply- 

 inclined shore at the base of a precipitous bank, with short leaders, and 

 exposed to the force of southerly and easterly storms, which sometimes 

 render these weirs almost inaccessible. The bottom is, for the most 



* Letter of James M. Treat. 



