THE PtIVER FISHERIES OF MAINE. 713 



sixteen largest have an aggregate area of 14.35 square miles. All or nearly all of these were 

 naturally accessible to alewives, and, as may be inferred, the river produced this species in great 

 abundance. Shad and salmon were also found there, and tradition says in plenty, but it does not 

 appear how plenty. At any rate, since the beginning of the present century, salmon have been 

 rare and shad not abundant. 



Alewives, smelts, and eels are now caught in this river in sufficient numbers for market pur- 

 poses; the alewives in weirs in Thornaston and Gushing, and in dip-nets in Warren; the smelts in 

 weirs in Thomaston, in bag-nets under the Gushing Bridge, and by hook in Warren; the eels are 

 taken with weirs, pots, and spears. 



The alewife fishery at Warren is controlled by the town; The weir fishery is free. There is 

 also a free fishery with drift-nets, which is believed to be mainly illegal. 



The town fishery at Warren dates as far back as 1802, when it was established by act of the 

 legislature of Massachusetts. It was the practice until 1879 for the town to appoint an agent, who, 

 with his deputies, captured the fish and dealt them out according to law. Tickets were issued to 

 heads of families, each ticket entitling the holder to 300 alewives on payment of the fixed price, 

 which was generally 20 cents per hundred. The order of precedence of the tickets was determined 

 by lot. Certain poor were supplied gratis. After all the tickets were supplied, the remainder 

 were sold for the town to any buyer. From these sales large sums were formerly realized, and 

 one year it amounted to $2,300, which paid the town tax for that year, the minister's salary, and 

 left something over. The gradual curtailment of the area of their breeding grounds by the closing 

 of tributary lakes and the difficulty of passing the dams at Warren caused a decline in the num- 

 ber of the alewives. From 1849 to 1858, inclusive, the average amount received from sales was 

 $511 yearly; the best returns being $1,146.16 in 1854, and the poorest $144.25 in 1850. During 

 eight years, from 1859 to 1867, inclusive (excepting 1865, when no sales were made), the average 

 of receipts was. $219.87. The lowest ebb appears to have been reached in 1864, when but $65 

 were received. For some years the fishery continued to yield very little, and in 1873 was almost 

 a total failure. Since then, however, there has been a great improvement, the sales in 1875 

 amounting to $526.28, and subsequent years having been quite productive. The improvement 

 may be reasonably ascribed in the main to the construction of improved fishways. 



The total catch of alewives in 1880 in the river by all methods was 515,000. There were 

 400,000 smoked and 134 barrels salted. 



The smelt fishery of the Saint George is of greater pecuniary importance than the alewife 

 fishery, though its origin dates from no further back than about 1870 or 1868, when several weirs were 

 built for them in the river just below Thomaston. At present there are 8 weirs built on the river, 

 and nearly all the smelts are caught in them. There are, however, 3. bag-nets used at the Gush- 

 ing Bridge, and a few men fish with hook at Warren. The product is shipped by rail to Boston 

 and New York, the latter taking commonly 80 to 90 per cent of the total. The census year was 

 the best year in the history of the fishery, 95,000 pounds of smelts having been sent to market. 

 The next best year was 1875-'76, when the shipments amounted to a little over 60,000 pounds. In 

 other years since 1872 they have amounted to from 25,000 to 42,000 pounds. 



No torn-cods of consequence are caught in this river, and the eel-fishery, followed with pots 

 and a few spears, produces but about 8,000 pounds a year. 



MEDOJIAK RIVER. A small river, draining but 62 square miles of territory and less than 3 

 square miles of lake surface, the Medomak has never been a very important producer of fish. It 



