268 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



The weirs used in 1896 were smaller than those on the Kennebec, but 

 resembled them in every other particular. Seventeen were set in the 

 lower end of this tributary, approximating $2,815 in value, and yielding 

 22,383 shad, valued locally at $1,074, These weirs also caught 60,216 

 alewives, worth $448. Six drift-net boats were used on Eastern Eiver, 

 manned by an equal number of men and using 12 nets, aggregating 900 

 yards in length, with 5J-iuch to 5^-inch mesh. Their catch from May 1 

 to June 25 numbered 3,000 shad, valued at $270. 



East of the Kennebec River there are no established runs of shad up 

 any of the rivers of the United States. They appear to pass northward 

 along this stretch of coast during May and June, and to return south- 

 ward in August and September. During both the spring and the fall 

 run, especially the latter, small schools enter the bays and the lower 

 estuaries of the rivers. In only a few localities, however, do they 

 appear with suflicient regularity to induce fishermen to make special 

 preparation for them, among which are Harrington and Pleasant rivers. 

 In other localities, as Penobscot Bay, Dyer Bay, Narragaugus Bay, etc., 

 they are taken incidentally in brush weirs and other apparatus set for 

 herring, etc. 



PENOBSCOT RIVER AND BAY. 



This stream is the largest on the United States coast north of the 

 Connecticut. Its sources are in the extreme western part of Maine 

 near the Canadian boundary, whence it flows a distance of over 200 

 miles to its entrance into Penobscot Bay, 30 miles below Bangor. It 

 is navigable for large vessels from the mouth to Bangor, a short dis- 

 tance above which it is crossed by a dam 10 feet in height. Within the 

 next 12 miles the fall of the river approximates 70 feet, an average of 

 nearly 6 feet per mile. Four miles above the first dam there is a second 

 dam 8 feet in height, and above this point there are numerous other 

 obstructions. 



It is stated that originally shad was the most abundant fish in the 

 Penobscot. At Oldtown Falls, a short distance above Bangor, there 

 were extensive fisheries eighty years ago, which yielded far more shad 

 than was necessary for the local demand, the i)rice averaging but $1 

 per 100. On the lower part of the river many shad and salmon were 

 caught in weirs and sold to the vessels, mostly from Connecticut, which 

 made annual trips to this river for salt fish. There was little decrease 

 in the abundance until the erection of the dam a short distance above 

 Bangor in 1830. Then came the erection of the Great Works dam, and 

 in 1834 the Veazie dam was built. When the shad came up in the spring 

 of 1835 and found the impassable barrier to their further progress they 

 wandered in confusion below the obstruction, and many loaded with ripe 

 spawn were taken in weirs in the town of Bucksport, which was reported 

 as a most unusual occurrence. The Penobscot, unlike the Kennebec, 

 has no available spawning-grounds below the dams, and furthermore 

 the water is frequently brackish all the way to Bangor, and whatever 



