838 



BUIiLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHEHIES 



records for the Kennebec cover a drainage area of 4,410 square miles^^ out of a total 

 6,330 — i. e., about two-thii-ds of the river basin. The average flow is given by- 

 Porter (1899) as 6,400 cubic feet per second for the four years 1893 to 1896; and 

 though a great number of records have been obtained subsequently, this figure may 

 be taken as representative. In other words, if this be two-thii'ds of the total flow 

 of the river (probably it is no more, because two important tributaries enter below 

 Waterville), the Kennebec River annually pours something like 300,000,000,000 cubic 

 feet of water into the Gulf of Maine, or enough to flood an area of about 8,000 

 square miles'^ to the depth of 1 foot. The discharge from the Merrimac is about 

 the same in relation to the area of its watershed — i. e., an average of about 6,800 

 cubic feet per second (8 years, 1890 to 1897) from about 4,553 square miles. Flow 

 measurements of the Androscoggin, taken at Rumford Falls, Me., at which point the 

 river receives the run-off from one-half to two-thirds of its total watershed of 3,700 

 square miles, give a mean of 3,884 cubic feet per second for the years 1893 to 1901, 

 suggesting about 6,400 for the entire watershed of this river. The discharge from 

 the Penobscot, with its larger drainage area (8,500 square miles), averaged about 

 23,500 cubic feet per second for the years 1899 to 1901 (Pressey, 1902), at White 

 Horse rips, where it drains 7,240 square miles of its total watershed of 8,500, indicating 

 a total run-off of not less than 28,000 cubic feet per second. By a simple arith- 

 metical calcuation the combined discharge from these four rivers alone is sufficient to 

 raise the whole level of the Gulf of Maine, out to its southern rim, by about 1 J/^ feet 

 per year. 



This does not include the St. John, the largest tributary of all, with a watershed 

 more extensive than those of the Merrimac, Androscoggin, and Kennebec combined 

 (p. 521), but for which no definite record of its discharge is available; nor of the dis- 

 charges from the many lesser streams — the Saco, for example, the Presumpscot, the 

 St. Croix, and many smaller. However, the general physical features and vegeta- 

 tion of northern Maine and of such parts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia as are 

 tributary to the gulf are comparatively uniform, as is the rainfall. Consequently, 

 it is fair to assume that at least as large a proportion of the rain that falls on the 

 watershed of the St. John and of the other unmeasured streams reaches the sea as 

 from the following watersheds where this run-off has actually been measured. The 

 run-off from the St. John watershed may, indeed, be expected to be greater, the rain- 

 faU in the interior of New Brunswick being heavier than it is over most of Maine. 



Eiver 



Merrimac 



Androscoggic 



Kennebec 



Penobscot --- 

 St. Croix 



Locality 



Lawrence, Mass 



Rumford Falls, Ma 



Waterville, Me 



West Enfleld, Me 



Woodland (Spragues Falls), Me 



Area of 



watershed, 



square 



miles 



Period 



4,462 I 1907-1917 

 /1893-1902 

 \1907-1917 

 1893-1916 

 1907-1917 

 / 1903 



\1907-19I1 



2,090 



4,270 

 6,600 



1,120 



Annual run-off, depth in inches, 

 for watershed » 



Maximum Minimum Mean 



24.14 



28.66 



32.45 

 32.06 



30.62 



13. 12 



14.28 



12.73 

 14.01 



14.96 I 



17.29 



22.36 



23.08 

 26.94 



24.14 



"The statistics on which this and the following tables are based will be found in Porter (1899), Pressey (1902), Barrows 

 (1907), and in U. S. Oeoglogical Survey Water-Supply Papers Nos. 97, 201, 241, 201, 301, 321, 351, 3SI, 401, 431, 451, and 481. 



1! Nautical miles. 



