ATKINS THE SALMON AND ITS ARTIFICIAL CULTURE. 293 



tunity to ascend, that they were too much exposed to be taken by the 

 spears and nets that were constantly plied both within and without the 

 lawful limit, and they rapidly diminished in numbers. In 1850 it was 

 estimated by Mr. Perley's informants that the number of salmon caught 

 on the whole river did not exceed 200 yearly. From that time for fif- 

 teen years the catch remained very small ; some seasons it was estimated, 

 to have been only about 100. In 1866 and 1867 there was a marked in- 

 crease, and at the present time the salmon appear to be gaining in num- 

 bers. 



In 1869 fish- ways were built over the dams at Union Mills and Baring, 

 which were the only ones on the lower part of the river that were with- 

 out suitable provision for the passage of fish. The dams at Milltown 

 were built out from either shore obliquely up stream, and, at the point 

 of meeting, a gap several feet wide answered the purpose of a fish-way 

 admirably except when choked with logs, a contingency not seldom 

 occurring. The fish-way at Union Mills was built after a design by the 

 late N. W. Foster, who was chairman of the State board of commis- 

 sioners of fisheries in 1867 and 1868. Alewives were seen passing up 

 through this fish-way in great number the first season it was opened, 

 and salmon are supposed to have accompanied them, quite a number 

 being seen above that point. The dam at Baring was passable not 

 only by means of the legal fish-way, but also by a broad stream of water 

 that was allowed to run around one end during all the early part of the 

 fish season. In 1873 salmon were seen at Vanceborough on the east 

 branch, and one was hooked there by Mr. Commissioner Stanley. The 

 ■dam at Yanceborougli and also that at Forest City, twenty miles above 

 on the same branch, were also provided with fish- ways in 1869 ; and the 

 onlj^ dam on the river now without a fish- way is that at Princeton, on 

 the west branch. 



The aboriginal mode of catcliing salmon was with the spear, and this 

 implement was still in use near the lower dam in 1850. The whites use 

 dip-nets on the falls, drift-nets on the rapids wherever the bottom is 

 smooth enough, and weirs in the tidal parts of the river. The dip-net 

 has not been much used since salmon became scarce, but until very re- 

 cently dip-nets have been used with fatal effect just below the Union 

 Dam, in Calais. AYeirs are built at several points in tide-water. Since 

 1860, they have increased in number. At the present time there are 

 built six or seven of all kinds. Mr. Lewis Wilson, who has built a weir 

 on the American side of the river since 1850, has given me much valu- 

 able information. From one of his letters I extract the following : 



"The yield of salmon, judging from the production of our weir and 

 what I hear. Is very irregular, five times as many some years as in others. 

 I estimate the range in different years from 100 to 500, averaging perhaps 

 300 or 350 annually. I think they are rather on the increase, compar- 

 ing our catches latterly with those fifteen or twenty years ago. Though 

 we take only about the same number that we formerlv did, or a slight 



