HISTORY OF SALMON ANGLING IN NEW ENGLAND. 99 



One article (Anonymous 1907, p. 427) stated: 'In common with shad and other dainty 

 fishes it is rather saddening to note that the Penobscot salmon is gradually disappearing 

 from its old haunts. Where thousands used to be taken it is now an event of wide- 

 heralded newspaper notoriety when one fish is caught.' The article then went on to 

 attribute the decrease to pollution, the commercial fishermen and dynamiting. It stated 

 that the supply of salmon was diminishing in spite of the best that the United States 

 fish hatcheries could do. 



On the other hand, in the following month, another paper (Anonymous 1907, p. 4) 

 announced the largest catch 'for years,' saying that it was the best fishing there had been 

 at the pool for years and if it would continue for a week or two Bangor might again be- 

 come the Mecca for fishermen from all New England as it was years ago when the salmon 

 at the pool were as numerous as trout in a brook. In one day ten fish ranging from five 

 to 20 pounds were caught. 



And again a week later an announcement under the title Took seven salmon (Anony- 

 mous 1907, p. 4) stated that the run of salmon at the Bangor pool continued and that 

 the fishermen were having great sport with the big gamy fish. It was reported that the 

 fish were not running large, 12 pounds being a good average, though fish of 20 pounds or 

 better were occasionally taken. The largest of the seven of one day weighed 21 pounds. 

 This comparatively good fishing was regarded as exceptional. 



The reported total number of salmon taken at the pool in 1907 was 117, the largest 

 of which was stated to have weighed 2334 pounds, although it was said that a fish of 24 

 pounds was kiUed. 



1908. 



The following year, Salmon at Bangor Pool (Anonymous 1908, p. 7) was the title 

 of another complaint that salmon were decreasing. 'Twelve years ago the salmon, king 

 of fishes, swarmed in the Penobscot River,' said the writer, 'and a man could go up to 

 the pools below Treat's Falls dam, withm the city Umits of Bangor, and hook a fine big 

 fish before breakfast. Hundreds of salmon were in those days taken with the fly from 

 these pools and thousands were taken in the weirs along the river below Bangor. Now 

 the salmon is so rare in these waters that the taking of a single fish is an event of such 

 interest as to call for mention in the newspapers.' 



The principal causes for the disappearance of the salmon were alleged to be the pulp 

 mills and the weirs. 



The personal experience of a former State Commissioner of Inland Fish and Game, 

 H. O. Stanley (1908, p. 10), is descriptive and reminiscent rather than pertaining to the 

 salmon fishing of 1908, although it was pubUshed in that year. 'My fishing for salmon 

 where I have been successful has been at the Bangor Pool. This pool is within the hmits 

 of the city of Bangor, and is at the head of tide water — some eight feet or more tide. 

 It is, as a pool for salmon, magnificent. At this point the river is several hundred feet 

 wide and large enough to accommodate a good many anglers and not interfere with 

 each other. 



