ATKINS THE SALMON AND ITS ARTIFICIAL CULTURE. 301 



miles, but it narrows rapidly as we proceed upward, aud at Cape Rosier, 

 tliirteen miles above, it is only seven miles wide. Above this point it 

 widens a little at Belfast, and thencontracts at Fort Point to a width of 

 between two and three miles. Three miles above this is the mouth of 

 the river, which enters the bay by two channels, one on either side of 

 Wetmore Island, sometimes known as Orphan Island, aud constitut- 

 ing the town of Yerona. The total length of the bay is about thirty 

 miles, being but little more than its greatest breadth. Its area may 

 be roughly estimated at 400 square miles, exclusive of islands. Into 

 this broad bay the Penobscot River discharges about 320 billions of 

 cubic feet of water per year,* or about 873 millions per day. Assuming 

 the mean depth of the bay to be 60 feet, its capacity is 400 millions of 

 cubic feet, and it follows that the volume of fresh water discharged 

 into it is sufficient to renew the whole volume of the bay in a little more 

 than a year. Probably the actual depth is greater than that assumed, 

 aud the time required to replace the salt water with fresh would be con- 

 siderably longer. That part of the bay above Castine, which first re- 

 ceives the water of the river, has an area of perhaps CO square miles, 

 and, if we assume the average depth to be 8 fathoms, the river could 

 not fill it in less than three months. 



These figures are nearly all rough approximations, but they serve 

 to show, in a general way, the small comparative volume of the inflow- 

 ing fresh water, and prepare us to believe that what with the tides, cur- 

 rents, winds, and other forces tending to bring in fresh supplies of sea- 

 water, the river can exert little influence in changing the constituents 

 of the water, except in the extreme upper end of the baj^ The flow of 

 the tide turns the current of the river as far as Bangor in the summer, 

 aud above Bucksport always. The water is quite salt at the latter 

 place, and in the summer it is brackish at the former. 



The result of the action of the river-water in displacing or altering 

 marine forms of life in the bay, cannot be told with precision without 

 more extensive observations than I have been able to make; but the 

 statement of a few facts will illustrate the degree of its influence. 



In several points of the bay are good hake grounds. Off Castine is a 

 good ground for haddock, and cod are also caught in that part of the 

 bay, both of them with their stomachs well filled with marine moUusks 

 and other animals. Near Brigadier's Island is a favorite place for catch- 

 ing meuliadeu, and this species is common enough in its season about 

 Bucksport. In the smelt-nets set from October to March, on the Bucks- 

 port aud Yerona bridge, there are caught not only smelts and torn-cods 

 but great numbers of flounders, sculpius, skates, &g., and at times, es- 

 pecially in the early part of the season, shrimps aud other small Crusta- 

 cea. Jelly fishes are not rare at the same point. The shores, even as 

 far up as this, are covered with a growth of fucus, and species of litto- 

 riua abound. On the other hand, I cannot recollect of ever seeing a 



* Wells's "\Vater-i3ower of Maine, p. 105. 



