718 HISTORY AND METHODS OP THE FISHERIES. 



ground above Waterville as long as salmon were able to pass Augusta. There was at the 

 same time a drift-net fishery of less importance at Augusta, several seine-fisheries, in which some 

 salmon were taken at various points up and down the river, and a weir fishery near its mouth. 

 An eye witness* estimated the number of canoes fishing with drift-nets at Ticouic Falls since the 

 beginning of the present century at about forty yearly, each canoe employing two men and one 

 net. On one occasion as many as eighty-two canoes were counted at work at the same time. 

 These canoes were all log dug-outs. Their ordinary catch was estimated at one hundred and 

 twenty salmon for each canoe for the season, which would give a total of forty -eight hundred. 

 Another witnesst estimated the number of drift-nets fishing at Augusta in 1820 at twelve, and 

 their catch at four thousand salmon. These are, however, off-hand estimates, and are liable 

 to be far out of the way. In 1837 and 1838 the dam at Augusta was built, completely block- 

 ing the way of migratory fishes, and extinguishing all the fisheries of the upper waters. Of the 

 salmon fishing below Augusta, we know that it was in a nourishing condition as late as 1814, 

 when an old-fashioned shoal-water weir at Abagadasset Point, in Merrymeeting Bay, took one 

 hundred salmon in a single season,! whereas in recent years a far more efficient weir on the same 

 spot rarely or never takes as many as half a dozen in a season. From 1826 to 1835 the yield of 

 salmon continued good, though by no means averaging so well as in 1814, which may have been 

 an exceptional year. From 1837 to 1842 there was a decidedly higher yield, which was especially 

 noticeable at Augusta. After this there was a sharp decline, which continued till 1855 or 1860, 

 when the lowest point was reached, just short of utter extinction. The only breeding ground 

 remaining accessible to the salmon was on the gravel beds within the first half-mile below the 

 Augusta dam, and to this opportunity is the continuance of the brood in the river doubtless due. 

 Since 1860 there have been several fluctuations, 1868 having been the best year then known since 

 1850, and 1873 having been still better. The number taken in 1867 was estimated by the state 

 commission at twelve hundred, but this is regarded by some as too high an estimate. The data 

 obtained by a careful inquiry (but not a thorough canvass) in 1873 led me to estimate the number 

 taken in that year at fifteen hundred, of which nine hundred were taken below Bath and six 

 hundred above that point. In latter years there has been a gradual decline, with some minor 

 fluctuations. The total catch in 1880 was two hundred and sixty-nine salmon. 



For the past twenty-five years the fishery for salmon has been little more than an adjunct of the 

 shad and alewife fishery. It is probable that not a single weir would be built or seine operated on 

 the river were it not for the shad and alewives, and the drift-nets at Augusta, the only implements 

 .used expressly for salmon, have rarely numbered more than two in a season, and have sometimes 

 been suspended for a whole summer. 



* Mr. William Getchell, who owned an island at Ticonio Falls, and carried on a dip-net fishery there, mainly for 

 shad, from 1804 to 1837, and who was in 1867 still living in Benton. 

 t Mr. William Kennedy, of Angusta. 



t The authority for this statement is Mr. John Brown, of Bowdoinham, who was at that time a boy living on the 

 point. Mr. Brown has a daily record of his own fishing, extending, almost without, interruption, from 1826 to 1861. 

 With his free permission I draw the following facts therefrom ; Mr. Brown's location was not favorable for salmon ; 

 no more, indeed, was any part of Merrymeeting Bay. The shad and alewives were the principal fish taken. The 

 average number of salmon taken in his weir during the ten yearb ending in 1835 was 21.6 yearly. In 1837 there was an 

 increase to 41, a greater number than any previous year since the record began. In 1838 there was a still greater 

 number, 65. The fonr following years the catch was 46, 27, 49, and 27, respectively, and the average for the six years 

 ending with 1845 was 42.5. This is hold by Mr. Brown to show very plainly the effect of the Augusta dam in detain- 

 ing the salmon, aud even impelling them to retrace their course from Augusta toward the sea, at least as far as 

 Merrymeetiug Bay. From this time there was a sudden falling off, the average catch for the next five years being 

 but 14. In 1850 it was but 5, the lowest point yet, and in 1855, 1857, and 1858, but one each year, notwithstanding that 

 u more efficient weir had taken the place of the old one. 



