690 DISTORT AND METHODS OF THE 1 FISHERIES. 



them a fire is made, generally of hard wood and smothered with saw-dust. After four to six days 

 in the smoke-house, during which they may be actually exposed to smoke less than half the time, 

 they are ready for sale. This is an outline of the practice of a Keimebec fisherman. The practice 

 of individuals varies not a little, and the finished product is of many grades of excellence or inferi- 

 ority. They are most palatable when lightly salted and smoked, but in that condition caniiot be 

 kept long. Selling at 40 to 80 cents per 100 and retailing at a cent apiece, they form a cheap and 

 toothsome article of food, much sought for in all parts of the State. 



For barreling, ale wives are " struck" with 1 bushels of salt to the barrel, without dressing or 

 scaling, and after lying from four to six days they are packed closely in barrels with half a bushel 

 or more of new salt per barrel, and filled up with sweet and strong pickle. Alewives keep better 

 in pickle than other fish, and are therefore exceptionally well fitted for exportation to warm cli- 

 mates. Great quantities of them are exported to the West Indies and other warm countries. 

 The practice of packing them without pickle has prevailed at times in some localities. 



THE SMELT (OSMEEtIS MORDAX). 



NATURAL HISTORY. The smelt ascends the rivers for the double purpose of feeding and of 

 depositing its spawu. On the eastern part of the coast it may be caught with hook and line in 

 the harbors all through the summer season ; farther west it is not to be caught until September 

 or October, being probably a short distance off shore. In October it begins its advance all along 

 the line, and as soon as the law permits (now October 1} the fishermen begin to set their fykes and 

 bag-nets and ply their seines in the mouths of the rivers. With the first strong ice in December 

 the fish are found already present in the fresh tidal parts of the rivers, and during the whole of 

 the winter there are smelts to be found everywhere from the mouths of the rivers to the head <>!' 

 the tide. The smelt is a ravenous feeder at all times of the year except about the spawning time. 

 At Robbinston it begins to take the hook about May 1, and continues to bite through the summer, 

 autumn, and winter. 



The spawning time is in April and May; a week or two after the ice leaves the river. 1'lie 

 nomcqa observed indicate that it is extended through the greater part of both months. In several 

 brooks in Bucksport the smelt spawns from May 20 to 25, but in certain brooks in Dear Isle just 

 a month earlier. The eggs are adhesive, and stones, sticks, weeds, and any rubbish furnish recep- 

 tacles. Sometimes they are deposited on the stony or weedy bottom of a tidal river, either in fresh 

 or brackish water, and sometimes in the pure, fresh water of small brooks. 



Owing probably to over-fishing, the smelts now caught are in most rivers much smaller than 

 formerly. Those of the Saco are nearly or quite the largest in the State ; they are said to weigh 

 from 2 pounds to 2| pounds per dozen (five or six fish to the pound). Those taken in New Meadows 

 River in weirs and seines count fourteen to the pound ; those taken by hook in the Keuuebec at 

 Gardiner sixteen to the pound. The smallest marketed (but not the smallest caught) from Bucks- 

 port are adults 6 inches long and weigh about 1 ounce ; among the larger specimens are some 

 weighing 4 ounces and measuring 8 to 9 inches in length. 



MODES OF CAPTURE. The modes of catching smelts now or formerly employed in Maine 

 comprehend the use of weirs, seines, bag-nets, gill-nets, dip-nets, and hook and line. All of these 

 modes are in use at the present time except gill-nets. 



Weirs. The weirs used for smelts are generally " half-tide" weirs. They are built sometimes 

 in a narrow cove, which they completely span, and sometimes at the head of a broad and shallow 

 bay, where they receive the form of a tunnel with the apex pointing outward. At high water the 

 smelts pass freely over them into the bay or river, but on the ebb-tide are intercepted by the spread- 



