THE RIVER FISHERIES OF MAINE. 097 



hole in the ice, or sometimes from a boat. Each several thrust is made entirely at random, 

 but experience guides to a choice of the proper kiud of bottom aud the topographical location 

 and extent of the beds. 



At Dresden, in the mouth of Eastern River, are some beds much resorted to now and for the 

 last eighteen years. The water there is entirely fresh. The fishing is, as a rule, done on the 

 channel banks, but sometimes quite out in the channel, so that at low tide the depth of water over 

 the different parts of the beds may vary from 5 to 25 feet. Some observers are led to the conclu- 

 sion that mud meeting in all respects the reqnin*nn>nts of the eels occurs only in patches, and 

 wheu they find one of these patches they will bed in it to whatever depth it may carry them So 

 the fishermen come armed with two spear poles, one of which is often 23 or 30 feet long.* 



Another locality for eel-spearing is in Quohog Bay, in the town of Harpswell. Here in 187G an 

 eel-bed was discovered which is famous as being the most productive one ever known in that region. 

 It lies in 13 feet of water at low tide, just outside the eel-grass zone, and extends over about 10 

 acres. When first discovered it was so densely inhabited by eels that a spear often brought up 

 four or five at a time. This still continues to be more productive than any other bed in the 

 vicinity, aud yields about three-quarters of all the eels taken in Harpswell.t The time when the 

 fishing can well be carried on is limited to about six hours at each low tide, and is practically 

 confined to the tide occurring in the daytime aud to the first two months after the ice forms. 

 Later the labor of cutting through the thick ice becomes too great.t 



There are doubtless many such beds yet to be discovered. The more thinly inhabited beds 

 are well distributed all along the coast. 



Marketing eels. The eels taken in summer with pots and traps are for the most part packed 

 whole ("round") with ice in barrels aud shipped to New York. The demand is very lively during 

 the first part of the season, and shippers receive about G cents a pound, free of freights and commis- 

 sions. The product of the spear fisheries aud of the fall weirs is, on the other hand, dressed 

 before marketing, and brings about 7 cents per pound in New York. As the shipper has to pay 

 freight and charges, aud as 200 pounds live weight will not dress more than 140 pounds, it will 

 be seen that the round eels, the product of pots and traps, give the best profits. 



STURGEON (ACIPENSEB STTJRIO). 



NATURAL HISTORY. The common sturgeon of the Atlantic rivers is the only species known 

 to visit the rivers of Maine. It ascends the larger of them for the purpose of depositing its spawn, 

 which it does in midsummer. Some intelligent observers think their natural spawning grounds 

 are almost wholly above the flow of the tide. On the Kennebec it is believed that they were 

 mainly between Augusta aud Waterville, a view which is supported by the fact that the closing 

 of the river by a dam at Augusta was followed by a great decrease in the number of sturgeon. 

 Very little is known about the growth of the sturgeon in Maine. The earlier stages are rarely 

 seen, except that a considerable number about 18 inches in length are caught iu the smelt-nets of 

 the Kennebec in winter ; they are very slender aud sharp-nosed, and are termed by the fishermen 

 " pegging awls." The adults caught iu the Kenuebec average not far from 120 pounds in weight. 



METHODS OF CATCHING. Sturgeon ascending the rivers in company with shad, alewives, 

 and salmon fall often into the weirs built for those species, and to fishermen who have not made 

 arrangements for utilizing them they prove sometimes a very great nuisance. But the only 

 means specially or regularly employed for taking them is the drift-net. Those now in use on the 



* Statement, of W. W. Walker. 



t Statement of Stephen Kemp, of Harpswell. 



