THE RIVER FISHERIES OF MAINE. 695 



set iii without any frame. The tide is so strong that the nets can only be drawn out when it is 

 rather slack ; so they are drawn only at high and low water, and kept in place all the rest of the 

 time. This method has also been in use at some points 011 the Kenuebec River, and indeed is 

 probably a very ancient method. 



Hook and line. The hook and line fishing for bass is practiced as a pastime at a few points, 

 especially near obstructions at the head of the tide, as at Augusta, on the Kennebec. 



MODES OF CUEING. The only mode of curing bass employed in Maioe is salting in barrels. 

 Some parties once dried a large lot of them in Oaseo-Bay, but they are said to have been too fat to 

 keep, and all were lost. With the exception of an occasional large haul all the bass are now 

 marketed fresh. 



HISTORICAL NOTES. Bass were undoubtedly quite plenty in early times in most of the rivers 

 west of the Peuobscot. In the latter river the old fishermen speak of them as having been 

 " plenty," but the degree of abundance was by no means equal to that existing in the Kenuebec, 

 and at no time has this species been marketed in any considerable numbers from the Penobscot or 

 any river farther east. In the west they were early subjects of legislation, indicating not only 

 that they were plenty enough to be thought worthy of attention, but also that there was an 

 actual or apprehended diminution of their numbers. The preamble to au act of the New Hamp- 

 shire legislature " to preserve the fish in Piscataqua River," recites that the fishing for bass and 

 bluetish* iu winter " hath almost destroyed the bass and bluefish in said river." In 1800 the 

 legislature of Massachusetts passed au act " for the preservation of fish called bass iu Dunstan 

 River in Scarborough, iu the county of Cumberland." On the Kennebec at Abagadasset Point, as 

 late as 1830, bass were so plenty that the fishermen were troubled to dispose of those taken in the 

 weirs. A single weir has been known to take 1,000 pounds at one tide. There was no demand 

 for them. Sometimes hired men would take them in pay. When plentiest they were given away. 

 Mr. John Brown says that about the time of their first diminution he obtained a contract with 

 General Millay, the keeper of the Bowdoinham town poor, to furnish 1,600 pounds of bass at 

 three-quarters of a cent per pound, but the fish were not plenty that year and he caught only 800 

 pounds. The extent of the diminution is illustrated by comparing the above statement with the 

 statistics representing the present condition of the bass fishery. The total catch of twenty-two 

 weirs on and about Abagadasset Point in 1880 was but 3,510 pounds ; the Keunebec River yielded 

 a total of 12,760 pounds, and the entire State 26,760 pounds. 



THE EEL (ANGUILLA EOSTRATA). 



NATURAL HISTORY. The common eel is found all along the coast of Maine and in all the 

 rivers accessible from the sea, as well as in some fresh waters which would appear to be absolutely 

 inaccessible in their present condition.! In waters communicating with the sea the young eels 

 move up-stream iu early summer to the fresh water of lakes and streams, where they feed and 

 grow. At the beginning of this migration the young eels are very small. In the month of July 

 they can be found 4 or 5 inches long climbing dams at the head of tide waters. They are able to 

 crawl many feet up a perpendicular wall down which the thinnest sheet of water is trickling, and 

 it is probable that they pass many dams that are insuperable to all other fishes, and thus reach 

 some waters very remote from the sea. The adult females, or a portion of them, are found 



* The term " bluefish" must refer to some other than the marine species now known by that name. 

 tThis is still debatable ground, some observers maintaining that all eels, however remote from the sea they may 

 bo found, reached their abode by ascending the rivers. 



