712 



HISTOEY AND METHODS OP THE FISHEEIES. 



the practice to sell the right to fish annually at auction. There were three sites for weirs, which 

 were all sold when fish were plenty, but in times of scarcity some of them occasionally stood idle. 

 The blanks are understood to indicate, in most cases, a failure to effect any sale. As a record of 

 special interest it is presented entire. 



In 1814 it is probable that the implements employed in fishing were of a very primitive char- 

 acter, and that the same incentives to effort, a brisk demand and the remunerative prices of ten or 

 fifteen years later, did not yet exist. The price obtained in 1820 indicates that the result of the 

 fishery of 1819 was encouraging, but the scanty catch of 1820 and 1821 (which rests on satisfac- 

 tory direct evidence from other sources) finds its natural result in the sudden dropping off in the 

 bids in 1821 and 1822. The rapid recovery of the fishery is shown by the rise of the rental after 

 1823. Prosperity continued to attend the fishery till 1832. The result of the fishery that year 

 was evidently disappointing, and the next year the rental fell off 62 per cent., and in 1834 there 

 was a further drop of 66 per cent, from 1833. In this we see the result of the decline of the 

 alewife and shad fishery. The revival of 1835, 1836, and 1837 was, it is fair to presume, the result 

 of the excellent condition of the salmon fishery, which, according t o another authority,* was at 

 this time showing an increase, which culminated in 1836. The general decline of the salmon 

 fishery is shown by the falling off of the rental from 1837 to 1845. 



Since 1860 there have been various fluctuations in the numbers of salmon and alewives, but 

 the shad have remained steadily at low- water mark. The years 1867 and 1868 were good years for 

 salmon ; so also were 1872 and 1873. In 1867 the State commissioner of fisheries estimated the 

 catch, from imperfect data, at 8,000 salmon and 1,000,000 alewives. In 1873, after careful inquiry, 

 the number of salmon caught was estimated at 15,000.t The latter year was beyond question 

 the best since 1860, and probably the best since 1850. 



SAINT GEORGE EIVEK. The Saint George is a small river, draining only 210 square miles of 

 territory. Its water surface, however, embraces seventy-two lakes and lakelets, of which the 



1 Mr. Arnos Treat, of Fraokfort. 



- t Kept. U. 8. Fish Coin. 187d-'73, p. 313. 



