THE EIVER FISHERIES OF MAINE. 683 



of nets." Sometimes from the outer extremity another rim is set with pounds at the end of it, 

 constituting another " hook of nets," ami this combination is called a " gang of nets." Sometimes 

 as many as four hooks are set in a single gang. The invention of this style of net is ascribed by the 

 fishermen to one "Halliday, an Englishman," with reference, doubtless, to the same Halliday who 

 introduced the use of netting or "marlin" on the weirs in the Peuobscot Eiver. The net in use 

 before the introduction of the present form of trap had only one pound, corresponding to the inner 

 pound. It was much inferior, as a great many salmon escaped by the entrance, which had to be 

 wide to induce them to enter at all, and in this way the very largest salmon were always lost, being 

 too large to mesh. Still farther back the pound was represented by a mere bend of the net at its 

 outer end, and this was also preceded by the simple straight gill-net which was in common use for 

 the capture of salmon in Penobscot River and Bay in the eighteenth and early part of the nine 

 teenth centuries. The improvements were very gradually made, and as late as 1850 fishing witL 

 nets with only the bend at the extremity was common. The trap is used only in Penobscot Bay, 

 and with the exception of a single net set in 1880 at Searsport, it is confined to the west side of 

 the bay below Belfast, and to Long Island. 



CUBING AND MARKETING. In the early days of the Maine salmon-fishery the bulk of the 

 catch was either salted down in barrels or smoked. For smoking, the salmon were prepared by 

 first splitting, removing the backbone, but leaving the head on, and salting for two or three days, 

 according to the size of the fish. When sufficiently salted they were washed off, spread by 

 applying thin braces of cedar or spruce across the back, and then hung up in the highest part of 

 a little domestic smoke house. Constant exposure to the smoke for two or three days completed 

 the process. 



Salt salmon were to some extent consumed in local markets, but it appears that the greater 

 portion was sent out of the State.. Smoked salmon became early in the present century an article 

 of traffic with the larger sea-ports of other States. Many were shipped on vessels laden with lum- 

 ber and miscellaneous produce. Small vessels belonging in Southern New England used to visit 

 several of the larger rivers annually and load with pickled shad and smoked salmon, buying a 

 part of their salmon already smoked and smoking part themselves. This trade died out before 

 1850. 



With the growth of the modern demand and the modern facilities for preservation and trans- 

 portation, the practice of marketing fresh increased, and for many years it has beeu exclusively 

 employed. For this purpose each fisherman has an ice-house and puts up a supply of ice every 

 winter. As soon as caught the salmon are placed on ice. The dealers have like facilities, and 

 in transportation the salmon are always packed in ice. There is a considerable local demand for 

 salmon in the cities and villages of Maine, but this is partly supplied from the rivers of New 

 Brunswick, and much the greater portion of those caught in Maine is shipped to Boston, where 

 most of them are retailed. 



THE SHAD (OLTJPEA SAPIDISSEWA). 



NATURAL HISTORY. This is the common shad of the Atlantic rivers from the Saint Lawrence 

 to the Gulf of Mexico. It is the finest in quality of all those members of the herring family that 

 frequent fresh water, as it is of all the Clupeidae of North America. In Maine it attains a size of 

 12 pounds, but this is extremely rare, the average being not far from 3 pounds, and the ordinary 

 range from 2 to 5 pounds. 



The shad is mainly a marine feeder, but it reproduces its kind exclusively in fresh water, 

 spending several weeks in the rivers for that purpose in May, June, and July. The earliest shad 



