722 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



grounds. Yet measured by the standard of receut years they were still abundant in 1830. Dur- 

 ing the ten years ending with 1835 Mr. Brown's single shoal- water weir in Merrymeeting Bay took 

 on the average nearly three times as many alewives as two deep-water weirs in the same vicinity 

 took in the year 1880. The average catch of the same weir for the twelve years ending with 1848 

 shows a decline of about 40 per cent. In 1867 the State commissioners of fisheries estimated the 

 aggregate catch of the river to have averaged about 1,200,000 alewives for some years previous, 

 there being then eighty-sis weirs, eight seines, and a few drift-nets in operation. In 1880, with 

 eighty-seven weirs and two seines in operation, there were taken about 675,000 alewives. The 

 latter estimate does not include bluebacks, of which some 400,000 were taken in 1880, an unpre- 

 cedented number. The estimate made in 1867 is supposed to include few if any bluebacks. 



Smelts. The capture of smelts in the Kennebec was carried on on a small scale with hook 

 and line and also with small gill-nets as early as 1814, Both these methods were in vogue in 

 Eastern River at that time, and the hook and line fishing was probably common in other parts of 

 the river, especially farther up, but it does not seem that the use of gill-nets was known elsewhere. 

 The use of nets extended to other parts of the Kennebec, and this continued to be the most productive 

 mode of taking smelts until the introduction of bag-nets, about 1852. The most of the smelts taken 

 fifty years ago were for home consumption, but even then there was a small trade in them for the 

 supply of local and inland markets. One cent per dozen is quoted as the price received by a 

 fisherman for his entire winter's catch. About 1850 there sprang up a brisk demand for smelts 

 to supply the large cities, especially New York, which has always taken the greater part of the 

 catch of the Kennebec since that time. The introduction of fykes and bag-nets dates from 1851 

 and 1852. Both these nets were used in the Kennebec for many years, but the fykes have gradually 

 gone out of use and plain bag-nets taken their places. 



With the exception of two nets on tributaries in Georgetown and Arrowsic, the bag-net fishery 

 is confined to the district between Bath and Richmond. There were one hundred and fourteen nets 

 employed in the winter of 1879-'80, and their catch was about one-third of all the smelts taken in 

 the Kennebec. 



Weirs for smelts are employed only below Bath, mainly in the mouth of Back River, between 

 Georgetown and Arrowsic. They are half-tide weirs, built and put in operation in autumn, and if 

 not earlier broken down by ice they fish until the smelts are all gone past up the river, which 

 varies from year to year, but averages about the middle of January. The total product of the 

 fishery in Georgetown and Arrowsic in 1879-'80 was about 52,000 pounds. 



The hook fishery is carried on in two districts : first, in the Sasanoa, at Treble's Point (the 

 northern extremity of Arrowsic); second, in Gardiner and Hallowell. The latter locality is an old 

 one, having been occupied with little or no interruption, though with all degrees of success, from 

 very early times. About 1850 it was very productive, but, according to local testimony at Gardi- 

 ner, it has fallen off greatly since the introduction of bag-nets in the Bay district. In 1879-'80 

 there were about a hundred persons who fished for sale, but not more than a dozen followed it 

 persistently ; the aggregate catch was about 19,650 pounds, all of which were disposed of in local 

 markets. The fishery at Treble's Point has just sprung into existence, the discovery that smelts 

 could be caught here having been first made in the winter of 1878-'79. The next winter there 

 were one hundred and fifty men, with 50 cloth-houses and 350 lines, at work most of the fishing 

 season, and their catch is estimated at 45,514 pounds of smelts. 



Eels. This fishery in the Kennebec, as in most other rivers, has been carried on very irregu- 

 larly, and little can be said of its history. Eels have been marketed from the Kennebec from very 

 early tintes. About 1840 a fishing smack from New London, Conn., followed for several years the 



