324 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 

 21. — RICHMOND'S ISLAND. 



This island is midway between tlie Presumscot and Saco Eivers, about 

 three-fourths of a mile from the town of Cape Elizabeth. Between the 

 island and the main-land is a sand-bar at times bare at low water. On the 

 western side of the same for about twenty years a pound, or large fish- 

 net, (a seine,) has been set, extending from the island to the main shore. 

 Every spring and summer each year, a few salmon (from six to twelve) 

 have been taken with other fish, shad, aiewives, &c.* 



These Richmond Island,salmon can hardly be referred to the Presum- 

 scot or Saco ; for were these rivers to produce salmon enough to aflbrd 

 so many at a point so far distant from their mouths, there would cer- 

 tainly be a larger number found in the rivers themselves. The Kenne- 

 bec is the nearest river that produces any salmon, and was probably 

 the native river of those caught at Richmond's Island, though this im- 

 l)lies a wide range along the coast, the distance being 20 miles. 



22. — SACO RIVER. 



Salmon used to ascend this river as far as Hiram Falls, and a good 

 many were taken there in old timps. 



The Great and Little Ossipee Rivers, the principal tributaries, were 

 also frequented by them. The brood has been extinct for many years, 

 and had become much reduced at least eighty years ago. 



There are many dams on the river; and those at Saco and Biddeford 

 render the falls at that point, which were always difficult, quite insur- 

 mountable. 



Since 1860 there have been four salmon taken in the mouth of the 

 river in shad-nets. One of these was caught in 1873. 



23. — MOUSAM RIVER. 



This small river was once very productive of salmon. The date of 

 their disappearance cannot be fixed exactly, but it was doubtless very 

 early. 



A dam was built across the river in Kennebunk in 1675, and since 

 1720 there has been a dam at that point all the time. Aiewives and 

 shad are now caught near the mouth of the river, but no salmon have 

 been seen for many years. 



^ 24. — PISCATAQUA RIVER. 



Formerly salmon were very abundant in this river, breeding in the 

 Salmon Falls River in preference to other branches, although some of 

 them ran up the Cocheco. 



It is over two hundred years since the Salmon Falls and some other 

 branches were obstructed by dams, and some authorities date the falling- 



* Letter of N. Cummings, esq. 



