HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 9I 



waiting, a few stray salmon, accompanied by a small colony of 

 eels, actually made their way to the foot of Amoskeag falls and 

 possibly some passed up the fish-way. Great things were hoped 

 but never realized ; each spring the number grew less, and in a 

 few years entirely ceased. The fish-way is falling to pieces with 

 rot, the fish commissioners of two great states catch nothing but 

 their salary, and the dream is over. The real clifificulty, however, 

 was not so much in the way as in the water; this had become 

 so contaminated by the wash and refuse of mills and the sewer- 

 age of cities that fish would not enter a stream loaded with saw- 

 dust, colored with dye-stuffs, and flavored with extract of gar- 

 bage and gas-works. As with felled forests game-animals and 

 birds have departed, so from our polluted streams the noble sal- 

 mon has disappeared ; and these are among the sorry penalties 

 exacted in exchange for calico and gingham. 



THE TRANSITION PERIOD. 



Not the least curious and interesting portion of the early his- 

 tory of Derryfield is the transition period — that stretch of time 

 during which the white man appeared while the Indian had not 

 yet departed. For the sole purpose of setting forth in orderly 

 sequence the procession of events leading to permanent settle- 

 ments in North America, we introduce the following dates as 

 landmarks: The Cabots, under Henry VII, in 1497, seventeen 

 months before Columbus touched the mainland of America ; 

 Verazzano, 1524; Cartier, 1534. This is undoubtedly the date 

 of the first but not of the first permanent settlement. But the 

 fisheries at Newfoundland had in the meantime become known. 

 Parkman says there is strong evidence that the trade began as 

 early as 1504, and it is well established that in 15 17 Spanish, 

 French and Portuguese vessels were engaged in it ; he adds that 

 from 1527 the Newfoundland fishery was never abandoned. In 

 1578 more than three hundred and fifty vessels visited the banks, 

 and in 1607 there was an old French fisherman at Canseau who 



