312 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



high water. Left inside by ebbing of the tide, they would gather in a 

 small compartment at the outer corner, whence they were dijiped by 

 the fishermen. This was the highest style of contrivance for the cap- 

 ture of fish then in use on the Penobscot. It took immense quantities 

 of shad and ale wives. 



The first trap-weir was built in 1815 at Treat's Point, on the west 

 side of Marsh Bay, built by one Hollis Emerson, from the Kennebec. 

 It worked on the same principle as those now in use, but had only one 

 pound. In 181G a similar one was built on Dram Point Flats. The new 

 weirs were so successful that large numbers of them were built all along 

 the river immediately. In 1820, however, and for several years there- 

 after, fish were scarce. In 1822 only two weirs were built on Marsh Bay, 

 one on Dram Point Flats and one on the opposite side. That year was 

 a very poor one with the fisheries in this part of the river, but was bet- 

 ter in the bay aud as far up the river as the northern end of Wetmore 

 Island, there being an extraordinary catch of salmon about the 1st of 

 July. From 1822 to 1836 there was an improvement in the river-fish- 

 eries, especially in the salmon-fishery. The year 1836 was marked by a 

 great run of salmon. 



In the appended illustrations are two plans of Dram Point Flats,* 

 representing the fish-weirs built on it; the one in 1832, the other in 

 1873. In 1832 there were, on this short stretch of shore less than a 

 mile long, five fishing-stations, maintaining 17 weirs, each with several 

 pounds. Xo exact statistics in relation to their yield can be obtained^ 

 but it is described as beiug enormous. Alewives were sometimes so 

 plenty as to be given away by the cart-load. The most of the fish were 

 shijjped on small vessels that came from Portland and Southern New 

 England to buy. 



Oue of the men in this business t states that he remembers of six 

 vessels beiug there at one time loadiug ; they would prol)abl3^ carry 

 away fish to the value of $37,000, and this but part of the season's 

 catch. 



The prices of those ladings were, for salmon, 5 to 7 cents a pound; 

 for shad, $6 to $7 a barrel ; and for alewives, $2 J a barrel. 



In 1873, instead of the seventeen weirs, there were only three, and these 

 probably were less productive than the same number of weirs in 1832 . 

 It should be remarked that the abandonment of these fisheries was due 

 more to the loss of the shad and alewife fisher}- than to the decrease of the 

 salmon. It is not, therefore, to be inferred that a similar falling off in 

 the fishiug-iudustry has occurred in districts where the salmon-fishery 

 was relatively of greater importance. Another source of injury to the 

 fisheries is the deposit of sawdust and mud on the flats. It will be 

 observed that in 1873 the flats extended considerably farther into the 



* These plans aud accompanying facts were furnished by Mr. John Arey, of Bucks- 

 port. The preceding statements about the fluctuations of the fisheries are ou the au- 

 thority of Mr. Amos Treat, of Frankfort. 



t Mr. Frederick Twombly, of Portland. 



