716 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



The eel fishery of this river is also located in Damariscotta Bay, and employs no implement but 

 the spear. The product has fallen off some in recent times in spite of a protective law which 

 limits the fishery in point of time to the four months of December, January, February, and March. 

 In 1879-'80 the yield was 18,200 pound. 



SHEEPSCOT RIVER. - The Sheepscot drains about 200 square miles. Its tributary lakes are 

 few and small, and it seems to have been, as tradition asserts, frequented by salmon and shad to a 

 greater extent than any other river between the Kennebec and Penobscot, while alewives were 

 relatively less abundant. Impassable dams at Alua, at the head of the tide, have for many years 

 shut the migratory fishes out from nearly its entire course. The main river was exempted from 

 the operation of the fish law by act of legislature in 1800. This exemption did not extend to Dyer's 

 Eiver. 



At the present day the fisheries of the Sheepscot are of little importance, the total value of 

 the product being but $2,540, which is about the ninth part of the product of the Damariscotta. 

 About 1,000 shad are taken in traps arranged for them in the river near Alna. One or two salmon 

 are commonly taken in these shad-nets, but none in 1880. No alewives of consequence are caught, 

 there being no fishing specially for them, and no summer weirs built. Bass, smelts, and eels are 

 the species taken for market. 



The implements employed in the smelt fishery are 11 weirs, 3 bag-nets, and the gear of 

 about thirty-five hook fishermen. The weirs are built at various points both above and below 

 Wiscasset, and operate in the fall and winter. The bag-nets were set at three bridges, on the 

 tributary known as Back River. The hook fishery is located near Sheepscot Bridge, from half a 

 mile above to 2 miles below, varying from year to year, according to favorable or unfavorable con 

 dition and extent of the ice. This fishery dates from the winter of 187G-'77. About $1,000 worth 

 of smelts Lave been taken out yearly, except in 1879-'80, when, on account of the unstable con- 

 dition of the ice, there was little fishing done at this point, and the total catch of smelts in the 

 whole river was but about 22,000 pounds, valued at $1,100. 



Bass are taken in summer with hook and line at Flying Point, in Wiscasset, and in winter in 

 gill-nets, above Sheepscot Bridge, in both the main river and its principal tributary, Dyer's 

 River mostly in the latter. This fishery began about 1873, some men from the Keimebec being 

 the first to engage in it. In the channel of Dyer's River, which is here uniformly very narrow and 

 of even depth, they set gill-nets about 35 feet long, 12 to 15 feet deep, and with a 4 inch mesh, 

 through the ice across the channel, which they in general completely span. The bass taken are 

 ordinarily from 3 to 12 pounds in weight, but some of 30 to 40 pounds are now and then caught. 

 The catch of the gill-nets is estimated at 5,000 pounds and of other methods at 3,000 pounds. 



Eels are plenty in Dyer's River. They are taken with spears to the extent of about 4,000 

 pounds yearly. 



KENNEBEC RIVER. The Keunebec is the second river in the State in size, and second in tht 

 importance of its fisheries. It drains 5,800 square miles, of which 450 square miles is lake surface 

 About two-thirds of the basin is covered by forest, and nearly the whole of it is hilly or mountain- 

 ous. Far the greater part of its volume is contributed by its western tributaries, several of which, 

 the Sandy, Carrabasset, Dead, and Moose Rivers, take their rise in the mountainous district on the 

 western border of the State. The Kenuebec proper takes its rise in Moosehead Lake, 155 miles 

 from the sea. This lake is the largest in the State, having an area of about 120 square miles. The 

 sources of some of the tributaries are from 2,000 to 3,000 feet above the sea, but the main river 

 issues from Moosehead Lake at an elevation of about 1,023 feet. As the descent thence to the sea- 

 level is accomplished in the 112 miles between the lake and Augusta, the Kennebec is a very 



