300 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



A better dam was tlieii built. For a time a fish-way was maintained ia 

 it, but it was by and by uegiected, and the fish left to their fate. They rap. 

 idly diminished, and were in a few years almost utterly extinct. For 

 twenty-five or thirty years, say from 1840 to 1871, but few were seen each 

 season and none taken. For two or three years past more have come, and 

 during- the summer of 1873 perhaps two or three dozen were seen try- 

 ing to pass the lower dam, and four or five of them clubbed to death. 

 An equal number has not been killed in any season for many years. 



The number of dams now in existence on the river and branches is 

 eleven, of which four are out of use and falling- into decay. Five of the 

 remainder are within a mile of tide-water.* 



11. — UNION RIVER. 



This was formerly a very prodnctive salmon river, but has not yielded 

 a single specimen for sixteen years, t The fisliery used to be carried on- 

 with nets, JS[o weirs were ever built in the river 5 1 and in the absence 

 of both weirs and nets at the present day it is quite probable that sal. 

 mon occasionally enter the river in very small numbers without attract- 

 ing attention. It would be remarkable, indeed, if not a single individ- 

 ual should stray from the Penobscot, w^hich lies so near. Their ascent to 

 their ancient breeding-grouuds is, however, effectually prevented by the 

 formidable dams at Ellsworth. Of these there are six, all located within 

 three miles of tide-water. Above them the main river is open to its 

 head-waters. 



12.— PENOBSCOT RIVER. 



The Penobscot Eiver, besides being the largest between the Saint 

 John and the Connecticut, is distinguished from, nearly all others 

 within those limits by the manner in which it discharges its waters into 

 the sea, namely, through a large bay or estuary, narrow at its head, 

 where it receives the waters of the riv^r, but widening gradually to its 

 junction with the open sea. This feature is also characteristic with the 

 Saint Croix, Union, Pawtuxet, and some other smaller rivers, but all 

 the large rivers within the specified limits, with the exception of the 

 Penobscot, discharge their waters abru])tly into the sea. This fact may 

 or may not be of importance in its bearing on the distribution and hab- 

 its of the migratory fishes frequenting the several rivers, but at any 

 rate is not to be neglected. 



The estuary of the Penobscot, called Penobscot Bay, has on the sea- 

 ward side natural limits tolerably well marked, not only by the numer- 

 ous islands embracing some of large size, that guard its entrance, but 

 by two prominent capes of the main laud. Owl's Head on the west, and 

 Waskeag Point on the east. The width of the bay here is nearly thirty 



* Letter of C. J. Millikeii, esq. 



t Letter of S. Duttou. 



+ Letter of K. K. Thompson. 



