THE RIVER FISHERIES OF MAINE. 721 



Fifty years later than this the whites had taken posession of the country and began to build 

 saw-mills. They found the ale wives ascending the river in immense numbers, extending their 

 migrations to Norridgewock Falls, 91 miles from the sea, and up the Sandy River some 20 miles 

 farther. Their principal breeding places were, however, in the lakes and ponds of tributaries 

 nearer the sea, especially Cobbosseecoutee stream (at Gardiner), Seven-mile Brook (in Vassal- 

 borough), aud the Sebasticook River. The first of these afforded an extensive breeding ground 

 in its 21 square miles of lakes and ponds, and must have contributed an important quota to the 

 population of the river, but it was early closed. In 1787 we find the town of Wales (then includ- 

 ing Moumouth) appointing a fish, committee, which the next year was designated a "committee 

 to see that the flshways are kept open according to law." The dams at Gardiner, however, were 

 impassable, fishways were not maintained, and very early in the present century this brood of 

 ale wives was extinguished. A similar fate overtook the alewives of Nehuinkeag and Worromon- 

 togus streams, two small tributaries on the east side of the river. At Seven-mile Brook and in 

 the Sabasticook the alewives continued to breed until 1837, when the dam at Augusta finally cut 

 them off. 



The Sebasticook was probably the principal nursery of alewives for the Keimebec. It has a 

 lake surface of 48 square miles, nearly every mile of which was accessible. After suffering great 

 diminution while running the gauntlet of the tidal fisheries, there still remained a vast throng of 

 fish to attempt the ascent of the Sebasticook. Fishing in this river was at first entirely free to 

 the public, but after some years it was found that there was a diminution in the numbers of 

 alewives, aud protective legislation was then obtained for the most important points, which were 

 at the falls, natural aud artificial. The fisheries at such places were generally put into the hands 

 of the towns. It does not seem that these measures were entirely effective, but that there was a 

 gradual decline from obstructions and excessive fishing. There was a dam at the upper falls in 

 Clinton previous to 1775, but it was provided with a fishway aud the alewives continued to ascend 

 in great numbers as far as Newport, on the main Sebasticook, and to the principal lakes on the 

 tributaries. In 1809 a more formidable dam was put across the river at Benton. A serious fall- 

 ing off of the fish was soon perceptible and the dam was cut away to allow them again to ascend. 

 In 1814 the town of Benton took charge of the fishery under legislative authority, and by a more 

 careful management effected a substantial improvement. The right to take the fish was sold at 

 auction yearly and brought from $500 to $1,500, though under the condition that the poor should 

 be supplied gratis aud all townsmen at a set price. The last year of the fishery (about 1837) it 

 sold for $225; one or two years earlier, for $500. 



Thus one by one the feeders of the river were cut off, with only one exception, that of Ne- 

 quasset stream, in Woolwich, which remained open until very recent times, and, indeed, is not re- 

 garded now as permanently closed. The breeding ground in the main Kennebec was also largely 

 curtailed, aud is now limited to the tidal portions of the river in and above Merrymeeting Bay, 

 and of the small tributaries centering in Merrymeeting Bay. So far as they go, however, these 

 waters are very good nurseries, and in its yield of alewives the Kennebec now stands third among 

 the rivers of Maine, only the Damariscotta and Penobscot surpassing it. 



Of the number of alewives caught yearly in early times we are no better able to form an 

 estimate than in the case of salmon and snail. There can, however, be no reasonable doubt that 

 tradition is right in assigning them numbers far greater than has been known to any one now 

 living. There must have been a great decline in their numbers consequent upon the erection of 

 impassable dams across the streams by which they were wont to reach some of their best spawning 

 SEC. v 4C 



