696 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



descending the rivers to the sea iii the autumn very large and full of spawn. In winter eels are 

 found bedded in mud at the bottoms of rivers and bays in fresh, brackish, or wholly salt water. 

 In some cases they leave the saltwater in autumn and push up into fresh-water streams, even 

 into very small brooks, and there pass the winter in the mud. 



Observations made in other countries indicate the probability of these conclusions : that the 

 female eel alone ascends the rivers, the males staying behind in the salt water; that the females 

 when mature always go down to sea and pass out beyond the reach of observation, where they 

 are joined by the males, and lay their eggs early in winter ; that after spawning once the females 

 die. Unlike the salmon, shad, and alewife, the eel is a predatory fish while in fresh water, greedily 

 devouring all animal substances. At the beginning of their seaward migration, however, the 

 females cease to eat. 



METHODS OF CAPTURE. Eels are taken with spears, in traps and pots set for the most part 

 in tidal rivers, and in weirs built across the streams that they descend in the autumn. 



Weirs. An eel-weir has much the form of a smelt-weir, two wings running out from the 

 opposite shores of the stream obliquely downward and converging to form a tunnel; at the apex 

 is a long narrow spout leading into a box from which the eels cannot escape. Rough weirs are 

 occasionally made of brush and stakes, but the most efficient have the wings constructed of sawed 

 slats combined in racks, which, when in place, rest on a close piling, affording the eels not the 

 slightest opening for escape, and effectually preventing their undermining the structure. The 

 best specimen of an eel weir, and indeed the only systematically conducted fishery of the sort that 

 has come under the writer's observation, is found ou the Cobbosseccontee stream, at Gardiner, on 

 the Kennebec. Mr. T. 3. Spear, the proprietor, has extended his operations to the collection of 

 young eels as they enter the river iii summer and their transfer to the waters above. 



Ilel-traps. An f el trap, known only among the fishermen of the lower Kennebec, is a dimin- 

 utive eel-weir, planted ou the flats in a favorable position to intercept eels in their movements 

 along the shores. They are generally set so as to make captures on the ebb tide. When the trap 

 was first invented, about the year 1875, it was set with a view to taking eels as they descend in 

 the spring, from their winter bedding places in the mud of fresh -water marshes on the small brooks 

 near tide water, and the most of the traps are still constructed so as to take eels descending with 

 the ebbtide; but experiment has demonstrated that they can be successfully caught with the 

 arrangement reversed so as to take only those that are ascending the river; and it is probable 

 that the fish that fall into the traps are merely working their way along the shore, either up or 

 down, in search of food. A good eel-trap costs' about $25. 



Eel-pots and baskets. Pots and baskets of various forms are much used in some districts. 

 The most approved form of late is made from a barrel by substituting funnel-formed screens for 

 the heads. Baited with fresh fish, free from taint, these are sunk to the bottom in favorable posi- 

 tions often alongside fish-weirs. The eels, probably scenting the bait, push their way in by the 

 tunnel-formed entrance, but are unable to escape. This is a very old method of fishing. 



Pots and traps are often used in conjunction by the same fishermen, as they are available at 

 the same season. On the Keniiebec they are used from May 10 to the last of September. 



The spear. The implement most widely known and used for the capture of eels is the spear. 

 The form in common use in Maine consists of a spatula formed center piece with three teeth on 

 either side, each tooth having a single barb on the inner side. The teeth are of steel, about 8 

 inches long, slender, elastic, spreading at the tips about 8 inches. With this implement at the 

 head of a long wooden pole the fisherman industriously prods the soft muddy bottom through a 



