ATKINS THE SALMON AND ITS ARTIFICIAL CULTURE. 023 



Early in the x)resent century tlie dafns at Brunswick shut them out 

 from all their breeding-grounds. Probably the Androscoggin salmon 

 were utterly exterminated; for the few specimens now and then seen in 

 the river are no more then we should expect to stray into it from the Ken- 

 nebec. These two rivers unite their waters in Merrymeeting Bay, into a 

 broad arm of which each of them flows. In the southwest arm, or that lead- 

 ing to the Androscoggin, are commonly built about six weirs, in which 

 shad and alewives are caught. Sometimes several years have passed 

 without a single salmon being taken by any of them. In 1873 there 

 were four weirs in operation. One of them »aught four salmon, another 

 caught one, and two more were taken at the mouth of Catbance River, 

 which point they probably reached without leaving the Androscoggin 

 waters.* A single smolt, six inches long, was caught in the middle of 

 the Androscoggin Ba5',t a thing quite unprecedented in the experience 

 of the fishermen of this region. Other specimens, supposed to be smolts, , 

 were caught near the falls at Brunswick. 



The two lower dams in the Androscoggin, both at Brunswick, have 

 been i)rovided with fish-ways. 



19. — ROYALS RIVER. 



Salmon frequented this river regularly and in considerable numbers 

 sixty years ago ; but they have been shut out by several dams, the first 

 of which is at the head of the tide. The last salmon seen in the river 

 were taken twenty years ago in a weir. There having been no river-fish- 

 ing there since that time, it is not known whether any salmon have 

 entered the river.| 



20. — PRESUMSCOT RIVER. 



This is a river of uncommon i^urity, draining, as it does, the second 

 lake in size in Maine, and receiving few tributaries below. Salmon, 

 shad, and alewives originallj" ascended the river. Salmon were practi- 

 cally destroyed by the dam on Presumscot Falls, near the mouth of the 

 river, very early in the present century. That dam was afterward 

 abandoned, and of late years salmon have occasionally been caught. In 

 1866 four were caught at the Presumscot Falls with a dip-net. In 1-873 

 a weir was maintained in the tidal part of the river, but took no salmon. 

 In October two salmon were seen below the da;m at Cum'oerlaud Mills, 

 and, the flood-gates being op'en soon after, they probably passed up, and 

 spawned near Sacarappa. A spent female salmon, of 13 pounds weight, 

 was killed in Iifovember at the latter village, and a spent tnale of 14 

 pounds above the dam at Cumberland Mills about the same time.§ 



There is a large number of dams on the Presumscot, bat few of them 

 are formidable. 



* Letter of William Rogers. 

 t t Letter of Robert Waid. 



t Letter of Frank Seabury. 

 § Letter of G. W. Haiuruond. 



