source was considered too small and the chan- 

 nel too inaccessible to warrant the time and 

 expense of a survey. No attempt was made to 

 survey Sheepscot and Long Ponds on the main 

 river, or the many small ponds on the tribu- 

 taries. 



The Sheepscot and its tributaries drain 

 an area of about 228 square miles as shown in 

 figure 1 . The main river rises in small springs 

 on Whitten Hill near West Montville at an ele- 

 vation of about 620 feet . The river flows about 

 39 miles in a general southwesterly direction 

 to Alna Bridge and then enters a long estuary 

 above the town of Wiscasset in Lincoln County. 

 The water is fresh at Alna Bridge although the 

 effects of hig^ tide were noted about 300 yards 

 above the mouth of Trout Brook about 1 .2 miles 

 upstream . 



In the lower 15 miles to Coopers Mill, 

 the valley is one -fourth to 2 miles wide with 

 bordering hills that gently slope to the river . 

 The valley widens in the next 5 miles to a width 

 ra.igii^g from 3 to 5 miles in the Long Pond and 

 Sheepscot Pond area . i\bove Long Pond the 

 valley narik-ws until it is generally from 100 to 

 300 yards wide from 29 to 35 miles above the 

 mouth of the river . The upper 4 miles are in 

 fairly steep hills with the main stem of the 

 river little more than a spring- fed brook. 



Along most of the stream there is a 

 marginal band of thick brush, consisting mostly 

 of alders, willows, poplar, and maple, with 

 some conifers . The streambanks are typically 

 earth and/or gravel . TTiere are exceptions in 

 the swampy areas near the larger ponds and in 

 the sand-bank and ledge-rock outcrops near 

 Head Tide, Whitetield, and Coopers Mills . 



The area was once intensively farmed, 

 and many grist and sawmills served the area. 

 These are no longer operating, and many of the 

 farms have been abandoned. Extensive areas 

 are reverting to brush and woodland. 



Width and depth 



In the 21 miles below the Palermo Fish 

 Hatchery the riffles were generally 20 to 60 



feet wide and 2 inches to 1 foot deep. The 

 deadwater sections and longer pools ranged 

 from 30 to 80 feet wide and 2 to 5 feet deep 

 with occasional holes 6 to 12 feet deep. With 

 the exception of Coopers Mill Pond, Long Pond, 

 and Sheepscot Pond, the stream decreased to a 

 •width ranging between 6 and 10 feet in the 14 

 miles above the Palermo Hatchery. The riffle 

 areas ranged from 2 to 6 inches in depth and 

 the pools ranged from 2 to 4 feet in depth with 

 occasional holes up to 10 feet in depth. In the 

 upper 4 miles of the stream the width and depth 

 decreased until the stream was a series of 

 smaU pocketUke pools and riffles . In the upper 

 mUe there was a series of small cascades. 



Bottom composition 



Table 1 presents a summary of the 

 bottom composition in the pools and riffles in 

 the surveyed sections of the Sheepscot water- 

 shed. The areas surveyed for bottom 

 composition were on the main stem of the river 

 and the West Branch only. While the sum of 

 the flows of the numerous small tributaries 

 made up the bulk of the discharge of the system, 

 the individual streams were typically of such 

 limited physical dimensions that they had little 

 or no apparent use as past or potential pro- 

 ducers of Atlantic salmon; hence they were not 

 surveyed in detail. Table 2 presents a sum- 

 mary of the small tributaries, along with the 

 factors, i.e. obstructions, total discharge, 

 etc . , affecting the stream as a salmon 

 producer . 



Stream flow 



The survey crew measured the flow of 

 the main river at North Whitefield on June 20, 

 1950, at48.4c.f.s. At this time the West 

 Branch was flowing 17 c .f . s . or about 35 per- 

 cent of the total river volume . 



The records of the North Whitefield 

 gauging station of the U.S. Geological Survey 

 station show that the river discharge has ranged 

 from a maximum of 5,260 second-feet to a mini- 

 mum of 5 second-feet, with a mean of 206. The 

 peak runoffs are typically in March and April 

 following the spring thaws . The minimum flows 



