MAINE: DISTRICT OF PORTLAND AND FALMOUTH. 79 



built ou Sebascodegan Island, a few miles from Cundj's Harbor. The following season another 

 factory was built on the same island. Each of these employed a seining vessel and two "carry- 

 aways." The business was continued till the fall of 1878, when, owing to a scarcity of fish, both 

 factories were closed. About 25,000 barrels of fish were landed at the two establishments while 

 they were in operation. 



THE CLAM FISHERIES. In winter many of the farmers and fishermen spend their spare hours 

 digging, shucking, and salting clams, which are very abundant on the mud-flats along the shores. 

 According to Mr. A. T. Trufaut, this business is on the decline and now amounts to only 12,200 

 bushels annually, while formerly the quantity was considerably greater. 



Quahaugs are said to be fairly abundant in Quahaug Bay, in the eastern part of the town. 

 This practically marks the northern limit of the species on the Atlantic coast, for though they 

 may be occasionally seen beyond it, they do not occur in any numbers. 



THE LOBSTER FISHERY AND CANNING INTERESTS. Next to Eastport, Harpswell was the first 

 town in the State to engage in the canning of lobsters. A cannery was located here by Boston 

 parties about 1849, and was run for five or six years. About 1858 Portland parties came to the 

 town and engaged in the same work for one season. From that date till 1877, when the present 

 cannery was erected, nothing was done in this line. Since 1877 the business has been prosecuted 

 with considerable vigor, and during the past two or three years both lobsters and mackerel have 

 been put up. The packing-season formerly lasted from April to November, with a suspension of, 

 work, on account of the poor condition of the lobsters, during two months in midsummer. The 

 season, as now regulated by law, lasts from the 1st of April to the 1st of August. 



In addition to the canning interests, Harpswell has shipped many fresh lobsters to Portland, 

 Boston, and New York, in smacks. This business began as early as 1830, and had assumed im- 

 portant proportions before the fishermen living farther east had any knowledge of the value of the 

 lobster fisheries. Owing to long continued and excessive fishing, the species is not so abundant 

 as formerly, and few of the fishermen depend wholly npoii this fishery for a livelihood, though 

 many engage extensively in it in the spring, and some do so at other seasons. 



44. THE FISHING TOWNS OF CASCO BAY. 



The towns lying along the shores of Casco Bay between Harpswell and Portland, including 

 Brunswick, Freeport, Yarmouth, Cumberland, Falmouth, and Westbrook, were in former times 

 engaged extensively in the fisheries. 



BRUNSWICK AND VICINITY. Wheeler's history of the region contains the following statement 

 about the early fisheries of Brunswick : 



"The earliest business carried on here, in addition to farming and trading in furs, was salmon 

 and sturgeon fishing. Thomas Purchase, soon after his settlement here in 1C28, caught, cured, and 

 packed salmon and sturgeon for a foreign market, and it is stated that there were at one time 

 'saved in about three weeks thirty-nine barrels of salmon, besides what was spoiled for lack of salt, 

 and about 7iiuety kegs and as many barrels of sturgeon, and that if they had been fitted out with 

 salt and apt and skillful men, they might. have taken abundance more.' It is also stated in Douglas's 

 history that there was a company formed in London for the purpose of importing cured or dried 

 sturgeon, and that they had an agent at the foot of Pejepscot Falls and a building erected there. 

 This was no doubt, as McKeen observes, a very considerable business, and it was carried on upon 

 quite a large scale, from time to time, until into the last century ; and until the commencement of 

 King Philip's war, in 1075, it was doubtless a great business with Mr. Purchase. The business has 

 not been carried on to any extent within the present century, the salmon having entirely dis- 



