THE HIV UK FISHERIES OF MAINE. C99 



to local fishermen, who still coutiuue to ship the, flesh to New York, but throw away all other 

 parts. In 1880, the least successful season in recent times, 12 fishermen were engaged iu the busi- 

 ness on the Kenuebec, and the total catch was about 250 sturgeon, producing about 12.500 pounds 

 of flesh, which sold iu New York at 7 cents and returned the fishermen about 5 cents per pound. 



4. DESCRIPTIVE AND HISTORICAL NOTES ON LOCAL FISHERIES. 



SAINT CROIX RIVER. The Saint Croix is reniarkable, even among the rivers of Maine, for the 

 great extent of the lake surface among its tributaries. On the best maps are represented 61 lakes, 

 of which the smallest has an area of three-quarters of a square mile and the largest of 27 square 

 miles. Their aggregate area is about 150 square miles, which is about 15 per cent, of the entire basin 

 of the river. These lakes afforded breeding ground for great numbers of ale wives, and, iu the main 

 river and its branches, here the salmon and there the shad found their favorite haunts. The 

 exact limit of the upward migration of all these fishes is very naturally unknown with any degree 

 of exactness, the entire upper portions of the basin being a wilderness till long after the occupa- 

 tion of the lower banks and the erection of artificial obstructions ; but the fact of their existence 

 in great numbers in the river shows that they must all have passed the only serious obstacle to 

 their ascent, the natural fall at Salmon Falls near the head of the tide, and found their breeding 

 grounds in the upper waters. 



The best accessible testimony as to the former condition of these fisheries is found in Perley's 

 "Report on the Fisheries of the Bay of Fundy."* The testimony there adduced may be thus 

 summarized : From the first settlement of the country till 1825 there was annually a great abund- 

 ance of salmon, shad, and alewives. Vessels from Rhode Island, of 100 to 150 tons burthen, fol- 

 lowed the fishing business on the river and were never known to leave without full cargoes. There 

 were also several seines belonging to the inhabitants, which were worked in the tideway of the 

 river, the owners of which put up annually from 1,500 to 2,000 barrels of alewives for exportation, 

 besides a sufficiency for country use. At the same time shad were caught in great numbers, often 

 more than a hundred of them being caught in a small net in a single night. Salmon were so plenty 

 that, according to testimony, a boy of fifteen has been known to take 500 in a single season with 

 a dip-net, and a man has been known to take 118 salmon with a dip-net in a single day. The dip- 

 ping place, both for salmon and shad, was at Salmon Falls The prevailing price for salmon was 

 4 or 5 cents per pound. About 1825 the building of dams had reached such a stage as to seriously 

 interfere with the ascent of fish, and they began rapidly to decline in numbers. In 1850 it was es- 

 timated that not over 200 salmon were taken. The decline in the alewife fishery had been equally 

 great, and in the shad fishery still greater. 



At the present time the condition of things is not much better than in 1850. The three dams 

 at Calais and Baring, notwithstanding the construction of fishways, are very serious impediments, 

 partly because they facilitate the work of poachers, and but few fish reach their spawning-grounds. 

 Salmon are now taken in sufficient numbers to encourage the continuance of the fishery, and as 

 incidental items there are taken a low alewives, a very few shad and bass, and small quantities of 

 smelts and eels. The implements of capture are five weirs in the tidal portions and an uncertain 

 number of drift and dip nets at Calais and Saint Stephen. 



The weirs are similar to those in use on the Penobscot and Kennebec; two of them, those 

 farthest up river, are half-tide weirs, and the others are " high weirs,'' with two pounds each, built 

 of netting and stakes. They are all built in the spring and removed in the autumn. The half- 



*M;icle. l>.v M. II. JVrley, <-i|., to ilic < :<>vn miii-nt Km i.uin lion Oilier. S:iint John, New Brunswick, Mnrch 1'J, 1851. 



