SHAD FISHERIES OF THE ATLANTIC COAST. 265 



locally at $1,208. During June and July, 1896, the schooner Robert 

 and Carr, 51.85 tons, of Cundys Harbor, fished for shad with a mackerel 

 purse seine in Casco Bay and east thereof. The seiue was of the ordi- 

 nary type used in the mackerel fishery, 320 yards long, 30 yards deep, 

 with 2-iuch mesh. The yield numbered 40,325, which were salted, filling 

 322 barrels, and sold mostly in Portland at $6.25 per barrel. 



KENNEBEC RIVER. 



This river has its sources in Moosehead Lake, the largest body of 

 fresh water in Maine, at an elevation of 1,023 feet above sea level; 

 thence it flows in a general southerly direction 155 miles to its entrance 

 iuto the sea immediately east of Casco Bay. It is tidal and navigable 

 for large vessels from the mouth to Augusta, a distance of 44 miles. 

 Nine miles below Augusta it receives its principal tributary, Andros- 

 coggin Eiver, and expands into a wide area known as Merrymeeting 

 Bay. At that point the water is usually fresh, but when the river is 

 low it is brackish as far as Bichmond. At Augusta the Kennebec is 

 crossed by an insurmountable crib dam 17 feet high and 956 feet long, 

 rebuilt in 1870. A fishway has been placed in this dam at its eastern 

 end, but it does not appear to be used by shad. A second dam at Water- 

 ville, 17 miles above Augusta, was built in 1869, and is 7 feet high and 

 750 feet in length. There are several dams above Waterville, the prin- 

 cipal ones of which are at Kendall Mills, Somerset Mills, Skowhegan 

 Falls, Norridgewock, Madison Bridge Falls, etc. 



For half a mile or more immediately below the Augusta dam there 

 are gravelly shoals which afford suitable spawning areas for shad ; 

 hence the erection of that dam has not been so injurious to this species 

 as to the salmon. Merrymeeting Bay, by reason of its broad, sandy 

 flats, is also a favorable place for shad spawning. The greatest injury 

 to shad in the Kennebec has been the vast quantities of sawdust run 

 into the river from numerous sawmills, covering the river bottom in 

 many places, so that areas formerly eligible for spawning-grounds are 

 no longer suitable. The fishermen state that this refuse is so abund- 

 ant in Merrymeeting Bay that at times the bottoms of their weirs are 

 covered several feet therewith. 



Shad formerly ascended Kennebec Biver as far as Norridgewock 

 Falls, 84 miles from the sea, where they turned aside into a small trib- 

 utary known as Sandy River. At Ticonic Falls and at Skowhegan 

 there were productive dip net fisheries. It is on record that at the 

 former place four men dipped 6,400 shad in one day, and that 1 man, 

 with the assistance of 3 boys, caught 1,100 shad and 20 salmon in 

 one afternoon. The catch in a weir at Abagodasset Point for several 

 years following 1820 ranged from 3,000 to 10,000 annually. 1 A weir 

 operated in Merrymeeting Bay yielded during the ten years ending in 

 1835 an average of 5,961 shad annually, while in the eleven years from 

 1837 to 1848 (omitting 1844, the record for which is lacking), the aver- 



1 Fishery Industries of United States, sec. v, vol. i, p. 719. 



