506 AMERICAN FISHES. 
where, twenty-five years ago and less, smelts were caught during the spawn- 
ing time by bushels every night and sometimes during the day, from the 
first of April to the middle of May, barring perhaps stormy nights. To-day 
the catches consist of not over a dozen or two on an average, and frequently 
not that many, and even none at all, and the runs are for a few nights only. 
In larger streams doubtless many escape, and thus some remain to repro- 
duce for the benefit of the seiners and weir fishermen. 
In this locality twenty or thirty years ago and perhaps later, brush weirs 
were used to some extent during the fall. There was then a profitable 
fishery. At the present time there are but two or three weirs, which do a 
very small business. I know of several weirs that have been abandoned as 
unprofitable, notwithstanding the cheapness of their construction. They 
have not paid, of late years, for the labor of erecting them and the time 
expended in tending them. The seine fishermen do better. These fisher- 
men usually have a large boat or scow, which they can move from place to 
place, and fish the various arms of the bay, coves, and creeks. Some fisher- 
men get a good many smelts on the beaches of some of the islands without 
going very far from home. 
In the old days these seines were seldom if ever used, so the catches of 
the present time can hardly be compared with catches then. Frequently 
now one or another fisherman makes a big haul and catches the market at 
the right time to make a good thing. But more frequently the fishing opera- 
tions are either a failure in the fishing or the market. I recall one catch 
made two years ago by a fisherman in Freeport, Maine, who took several 
hundred pounds of smelts and sniBee them to New York, receiving in pay- 
ment a two-cent stamp. 
There is some hook-and-line Ais in this region during October and 
November, but merely for home consumption or the fun of it. In some of 
the waters farther east a fairly profitable hook-and-line fishery is carried on. 
Smelts occur in most coastwise lakes or ponds which prior to the obstruc- 
tion by dams were accessible from the sea. In at least two instances they 
occur in waters in whose outlets there exist unsurmountable falls — so it is 
said. 
In the fresh waters, smelts vary in size and habits, and in some of the 
larger lakes, it is said, there are two distinct sizes. of adult fish. This 
certainly seems to be the case, at least in Sebago Lake, where during the 
spawning time (about the middle of April) I collected a large number of 
two sizes, one ranging from about 1¢ to 13 or 14 inches in length, the other 
