THE K1VEB FISHERIES OP MAINE. 



715 



hundred. From 18(55 to 1880, inclusive, the committee has sold the privilege of taking fish at auc- 

 tion, and the price was in 1866 raised to 50 cents per hundred. Eeceipts from the auction sales, 

 and the estimated number of fish taken each year, have been as follows: 



From this it appears that the best catch since 1865 was that of 1880. But this was sometimes 

 exceeded in the first half of the century. The year 1843 is remarkable as the most productive ever 

 known. The spring of that year was a season of exceptionally large rainfall, and the water in the 

 river was very high. The product of the sales at 25 cents per hundred was about $3,000, and a 

 greo.t many were taken by private parties who did not pay for them. 



The above statements refer only to the fishery at Damariscotta Mills, which is managed by the 

 towns, and the implements of which are dip-nets exclusively. There, however, exists a weir fishery 

 of early origin and now embracing 13 weirs on the lower part of the river in Bristol and Edgecomb, 

 a gill-net fishery with about 20 nets in the same vicinity, and a seine fishery at Eutherford's Island. 

 By all these methods there were taken in 1880 about 2,300,000 alewives, or about 5,400 barrels, 

 of which 2,950 barrels were salted, and 2,400 barrels smoked. 



The earliest alewives make their appearance in the vicinity of Damariscotta Mills at the end of 

 April or the first of May, and they continue to ascend the stream for five or six weeks." The first 

 captures are generally made from May 5 to 10, and the principal run is expected about May 20 to 

 25. Of the early runs 400 fill a barrel, but at the close of the season it takes 500. 



The smelt fishery of the Damariscotta has sprung up within the last twenty years. It has 

 always been exclusively a hook-and-line fishery through the ice of Damariscotta Bay. In its 

 earliest stages the fishermen stood by their holes without shelter. Then they resorted to clumps 

 of brush to break off the cold winds. The next step was the building of a heavy wooden sha.uty, 

 and these have finally given place to neat, comfortable, and easily-movable cloth huts, of which in 

 the winter of 1S79-'80 there were in use 154 the greatest number ever known. Each house is 

 occupied by one man with 3 lines, and each line generally carries a single hook. The favorite 

 and ordinary bait is the marsh minnow, which is collected in the fall and kept in springs or in pits 

 in house cellars. The smelts bite on either tide, and their movements about the bay are so irregu- 

 lar that the fishermen are unable to agree as to best location for fishing, and the huts are often 

 moved about to find better ground. The catch of 1879-'80 aggregated 70,500 pounds, of which 

 about one-third was sent by sleds into the country in various directions, and the remainder for- 

 warded by rail to Boston and Kew York. The prices obtained averaged to the fisherman 4 to 5 

 cents per pound. 



