704 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



thirds of them in the latter city. They are uncommonly large. Some of the fishermen say they 

 will average 6 or 7 to the pound, and that the largest will weigh 7 to 9 ounces; but it will not do 

 to accept these figures without question. 



HARRINGTON RIVER. This is a tidal estuary lying wholly in the town of Harrington, and 

 fed by a single fresh- water stream, a mere brook. The fisheries followed are: 1st, a summer 

 fishery, with weirs for miscellaneous fish, in which a few alewives and shad are taken; 2d, a win- 

 ter fishery for smelts, with bag- nets and weirs; 3d, a winter fishery for eels, with spears. 



The summer fishery employed in 1880 but one man, who built a single weir. 



The smelt fishery employed sixteen men, who set 18 bag-nets and built 4 weirs. They took 

 Hi tons of smelts, which were marketed, one-half in New York, three eighths in Boston, and one- 

 eighth in Philadelphia. The weir fishery for smelts has been carried on here for thirteen years, 

 and the net fishery for ten years. 



The eel fishery is not pursued persistently. The spears took about half a ton and a ton was 

 obtained from the weirs. Some of them are salted, but most of them are sold fresh. They aver- 

 age, alive, half a pound in weight. The largest known weighed 4 pounds. 



NARRAGUAGUS RIVER. This river is larger than the three last mentioned, draining a terri- 

 tory of 215 square miles. In early times great numbers of salmon, shad, and alewives were taken 

 here, but the dams at Cherryfield long ago destroyed them. Smelts have been taken in bag-nets 

 in recent years, but this fishery also has been suspended, and the weir is this year quite unpro- 

 ductive. 



TUNK RIVER. Another very small stream, draining only 60 square miles of territory. There 

 are some alewives, eels, and torn-cods caught and now and then a salmon, but the only fishes taken 

 in numbers enough to be of any importance are smelts, which are fished for with weirs and bag-nets. 

 There was but one weir built in 1879-'80, but 10 nets were in use, giving employment to nine men. 

 The nets are plain bags, and are set in a line up and down the narrow channel, but, in obedience 

 to local custom, never across it. The total catch was 4| tons of smelts. 



WEST BAY (Gouldsborough). This is not an established fishing ground, but in the winter of 

 1S79-'SO two men fished here with a bag-net for smelts, and caught 3,000 pounds. 



WEST GOULDSBOROUGH. Here is a fishery for alewives in the stream, which forms the outlet 

 of Jones Pond, which is held as private property and claimed to be originally and always an arti- 

 ficial fishery. One Colonel Jones, one of the early settlers and proprietor of the mills at this place, 

 about 1794 got some alewives from Mount Desert and put them into the mill-pond, thus estab- 

 lishing the brood in the stream. From that time down to the present it has been maintained 

 wholly by carrying up and turning into the pond a few of the alewives caught. It has been the 

 ordinary practice to carry up a basketful (one third of a bushel) for each barrel killed. When the 

 father of the present proprietors was in possession, they once caught a great quantity, estimated 

 at over 200 barrels, but during the past twenty years the catch has ranged from 40 to 100 barrels, 

 and in 1880 was as low as 30 barrels. They are all smoked and marketed locally. 



SULLIVAN RIVER. Some of the tributaries of this river have in former times supported 

 ' alewife fisheries, as attested by tradition and by the record of legislation. In 1831 the legislature 

 passed an act to regulate the alewife fishery in the town of Franklin, and in 1833 it passed another 

 with reference to the town of Sullivan ; but all these fisheries suffered the common fate extinction 

 by dams. In the expansion of the river known as Hog B.!iy smelt fisheries on a small scale have 

 been carried on occasionally, but not regularly, and eel fisheries of some local importance exist at 

 the east end of the bay in Donnel's Stream. The entire yield for the census year amounted to but 

 4,000 pounds of smelts and 5,000 pounds of eels. 



