ATKINS THE SALMON AND ITS ARTIFICIAL CULTURE. 321 



have been counted at work at one time ; but the average was not over 

 40. They took several thousand salmon in a season. Other drift-net 

 fisheries existed at Augusta and various other points on the river. The 

 fisheries near the mouth of the river were carried on with set-nets and 

 weirs, the former coming into use much earlier than the latter. No ex- 

 act statistics of their catch have been obtained. The use of nets was 

 not confined to the river. Several were set quite outside its mouth on 

 Hunneweirs Beach. At Cape Small Point, 6 miles west of the river, 

 there were several nets set, and one trap or pound-net is still in use at 

 Bald Head, for the capture of various species, among which salmon are 

 accounted of considerable importance. The salmon-fisheries of the 

 Kennebec were in a flourishing condition in 1873, when the dam at Au- 

 gusta was completed. For a few years after that they continued plenty, 

 and then rapidly declined until they almost disappeared. The drift-net 

 fishery at Augusta was for some years abandoned because of the 

 scarcity of salmon. The decade from 1850 to 1860 is generally believed 

 to have been the period of greatest scarcity. In 1866, 1867, and 1868 there 

 was a marked increase, the latter year being by far the best since 1850. 

 After that there was another decline, 1870 and 1871 being poor years. 

 In 1872 and 1873 there has been another increase, which far surpasses 

 that of 1868. It was also remarked on the Kennebec as on the Penobscot, 

 that the salmon of 1873 were of an uncommonly large size on the av- 

 e rage. 



At the present day, salmon arc caught in weirs in the lower part of 

 the river and drift-nets at Augusta. The drift-nets, rarely over two or 

 three of them in operation at once, are plied solely for salmon, and, the 

 Augusta dams holding them firmly in check, the number caught in 

 favorable seasons probably amounts to several hundred. The weirs are 

 all below Richmond. They are in general built more for the capture of 

 alewives and shad than for the salmon. Those that yield the most of 

 the salmon are below Merrymeeting Bay ; the best of all being near the 

 mouth of the river. The number built below Bath in 1873 was 23, just 

 the same number as in 1867, but a falling off from the next succeeding 

 years; there having been 33 in the same district in 1868, and 26 below 

 Lee's Island in 1869. These weirs are in no essential particular different 

 from those in use in the Penobscot. In Merrymeeting Bay, however, 

 the kind of weir in common use is more like the herring-weir of the 

 eastern part of the State, the fish being captured with a seine in a 

 large pound. 



The inquiries made in regard to the number of salmon caught in 1873 

 elicited the following items of information. One estimate places the 

 number caught below Bath at 700.* From another source 1 1 have a list 

 of the fishermen below Phippsburgh Center, 14 in number, probably 



* Thomas E. Scott, of Georgetowu. 

 t D. D. Swazey, of Fort Popham. 



S. Mis. 74 21 



