ATKINS THE SALMON AND ITS ARTIFICIAL CULTURE. SOS 



pass. lu July they are opened again, and for several weeks more tbey 

 are pouring out a flood of water, in which salmon can ascend. At the 

 outlet of Chesuncook Lake there is a similar dam, but it is opened much 

 earlier in the season. Such is the case with nearly all driving dams. 



Besides the building of dams there is one other artificial change in 

 the condition of the river worth mentioning. For half a century past 

 the principal occupation of the population along the Penobscot Eiver 

 has been the cutting and manufacturing of timber. For this purpose, 

 indeed, most of the dams were built. The refuse from the saw-mills, 

 consisting of slabs, edgings, shavings, and sawdust, was, until very 

 recently, all thrown into the river, as the easiest way of getting rid of 

 it. Lately the throwing of the coarser sorts of refuse into the river lias 

 been forbidden by law ; but saw-dust may still legally be disposed of in 

 that way, and the throwing in of refuse of the coarser kinds is not en- 

 tirely stopped. This practice has not affected the upper part of the 

 river materially, since there are no extensive lumber-mills above Old- 

 town ; but from the latter place to the sea the refuse has accumulated 

 to such an extent as to encroach alarmingly on the channel, and fill i\]) 

 extensive coves and bays witli a deposit of decaying saw-dust, mixed 

 with earthy sediment, while great quantities of the former are, througli 

 the greater part of the year, to be constantly seen floating on the tide, 

 or swimming at all depths beneath the surface. The extensive deposits 

 have in some instances so altered the configuration of the bottom as to 

 interfere with the success of certain fishing-stations; but beyond that 

 I see no evidence that the discharge of the mill refuse into the river 

 has had any injurious effect on the salmon. It does not seem to deter 

 them from ascending, and, being thrown in below all the spawning 

 grounds, it cannot affect the latter. 



The Main Penobscot, above Oldtown, with the exception of two 

 " dead-waters," so called, has, throughout its entire length, a strong- 

 current, broken at intervals by falls. The two dead-waters are the 

 Sunkhaze Dead-Water, which commences some two miles above Old- 

 town and extends from six to eight miles, and a similar one occupying' 

 a space between Piscataquis Falls, near the month of the Piscataquis 

 Eiver, and Lincoln. The last has a stronger current than the Sunkhaze 

 Dead-Water, and has a gravelly bottom for the most part. The princi- 

 pal falls between Oldtown and Nickerton, at the mouth of the Mattaga- 

 mon, or East Branch, are the Cook, Olamon, Passadumkeag, Piscata- 

 quis, and Five Island Falls. The bottom for the whole distance above 

 Sunkhaze Dead-Water, is rocky or gravelly, though not in many places 

 ledgy. From Mattawamkeag to Nickerton is a beautiful, gravelly bot. 

 tom, with a uniformly strong current, well adapted, it is supposed, to 

 form spawning-beds for salmon, although it is not positively known 

 that they ever spawn there. 



Of the lower tributaries the finest and most extensive breeding- 

 grounds lie in the Piscataquis and its branches, to many of which sal- 



