702 HISTOEY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



EAST MACHIAS RIVER. Naturally well adapted to the growth of alewives, this river con- 

 tinues to produce more of them than any other river in Maine east of the Penobscot. A few sal- 

 mon are taken and scattering specimens of shad. In the winter smelts and torn-cods are caught 

 in small numbers. 



The spring and summer fisheries are carried on mainly by means of dip-nets at the falls in 

 East Machias village, a few are caught in the same manner at a point 2 miles farther up the river, 

 and a very small catch is secured by a few weirs in the tide-way. In 1880 but two of these weirs 

 were built. 



The dip-net fishery employed regularly, the whole or part of the time during the fishing season, 

 about forty persons, besides an indefinite number of men and boys who took part in it occasionally. 

 The site of this fishery is between the two dams that here cross the river, and just below the lower 

 one. The fishermen build platforms at convenient points along the river's edge, and swing their 

 nets in the foaming rapids. The nets in use are very well made and efficient. The best of them 

 have steel bows 3 feet in diameter, poles 10 to 17 feet long, and nets of fine twine 5 i'eet deep. 

 The East Machias alewives are of good size, 400 of them filling a barrel when salted and packed 

 for market. Of the 399 barrels caught in 1880, there were salted, 234 barrels ; smoked, 135 bar- 

 rels ; and used fresh, 30 barrels. 



Salmon are not known to have ever been very abundant in this river, and at the present time 

 but very few are taken. For many years past there has been no decided increase nor decrease, 

 though many fluctuations. In 1880 just 35 were caught, all of them in dip-nets by the alewife fish- 

 ermen. This was much below the average catch. 



Smelts are taken by night in April and May for home use and local market in dip-nets, 

 differing from the alewife nets only in having a smaller mesh. They rarely ascend as far as the 

 dams, but are caught along shore farther down. The smelt fishing commonly lasts ten or fifteen 

 days. The yield in 1885 was but 15 barrels, and they appear to be decreasing. Tom-cods are 

 taken in the winter with dip-nets to the extent of 55 barrels a year. Shad yield only occasional 

 specimens now, though within twenty-five years they have been plenty enough to be of some 

 importance. Some are now taken in the herring weirs of Holmes Bay. 



MACHIAS RIVER. In its original condition the Machias abounded in salmpn. It yielded 

 also shad and alewives, though in less numbers than the East Machias, owing, perhaps, in part to 

 a very difficult natural fall at the head of the tide, and in part, so far as alewives are concerned, 

 to the comparatively smaller area of lakes on this river. The difficulties of the falls at the head of 

 the tide were further increased by the erection of a dam by the earliest white occupants, probably 

 not later than 1784, the date of the incorporation of the town of Machias. Shad and alewives 

 could no longer ascend the river, but the alewives were maintained in the river for many years by 

 transferring a large number from the lower to the upper side of the falls each year. Salmon con- 

 tinued to breed and be caught in the river, until other and impassable dams were built, when 

 they too disappeared along with the shad and alewives. At the present time the river is almost 

 utterly unproductive of fish, the entire catch not exceeding 2 barrels of alewives and 5 barrels 

 of torn-cods. 



CHANDLER'S RIVER. This little river, draining about 50 square miles of territory, once 

 yielded, tradition says, salmon, shad, alewives, smelts, &c. Alewives and smelts are still taken 

 in small numbers, as are also torn-cods, but salmon and shad have long since disappeared. Of 

 alewives but five barrels yearly are taken by means of dip-nets. One bag-net is set for smelts in 

 early winter, and some few dip-nets plied for them in spring, with an aggregate product of about 

 40 barrels yearly. A dip-net fishery Tor torn-cods in December yields about 200 bushels yearly. 



