322 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONEE OF FISH AND FISHEEIES. 



building about that number of weirs, and a statement of the catch of 

 each. The sum-total is 645, which woukl indicate that the precedin g 

 • estimate was too small. Thirteen of these fishermen caught during the 

 last three years tbe following numbers of salmon : 



Salmon. 



1871 154 



1872 237 



1873 , 575 



Mr. S. W. Gushing, of Bath, dealer in fish, states that, in his opinion, the 

 catch of salmon in the Kennebec, in 1873, is more than double that of 

 any previous season for fifteen years excepting 1872, and very largely 

 in excess of that year. On the basis of these several statements the 

 following estimate of the catch of 1873 is submitted : 



Salmon caught below Bath 900 



Salmon caught above Bath 600 



Total 1,500 



This is believed to be an approximation, though a rough one, to the 

 true number. The yield of 1871, if we may take the experience of the 

 lower part of the river as indicating the true ratio between that and other 

 years, must have been less than 500. 



The artificial obstructions to the ascent of salmon as well as other 

 fish are numerous and formidable. There are six dams across the main 

 river below Carratunk Falls. Three of them are formidable obstruc- 

 tions. The dam at Augusta is 18 feet high, and would be absolutely 

 impassable were it not for the lock provided for navigation. Through 

 this a greater or less number of salmon passes each year. Almost 

 every summer a few of them i)ass the second, third, and fourth dams, 

 and are seen at Skowhegau ; aud not infrequently thej^ pass this point 

 also. None of the dams are now provided with fish-ways. 



18. — ANDROSCOGGIN RIVER. 



In the natural adaptation to the growth of salmon, the Androscoggin 

 is supposed to have been scarcely inferior to the Kennebec. In purity 

 of water it is superior, and it has a much greater extent of gravelly 

 river-bottom, swept by brisk currents, where salmon like to lay their 

 eggs. Its disadvantages were its difficult falls. That at Lewiston, 

 though it may have turned back the greater part of the salmon, was, 

 nevertheless, scaled by some that appeared at the foot of East Eumford 

 Falls, where they encountered a series of cataracts quite insurmount- 

 able. Direct testimony has been obtained only, to the fact of one or two 

 salmon being taken here more than fifty years ago ; but tradition has it 

 that they were once very plenty in Swift River, a tributary that enters 

 the Androscoggin just below the falls. They must have been early 

 shut out from that part of the river. At Lewiston they were taken as 

 late as 1815. 



