THE RIVER FISHERIES OF MAINE, 683 
of nets.” Sometimes from the outer extremity another run is set with pounds at the end of it, 
constituting another “hook of nets,” and this combination is called a “‘ gang of nets.” Sometimes 
as many as four hooks are set in a single gang. The invention of this style of net is ascribed by the 
fishermen to one “Halliday, an Englishman,” with reference, doubtless, to the same Halliday who 
introduced the use of netting or “marlin” on the weirs in the Penobscot River. The net in use 
before the introduction of the present form of trap had ouly one pound, corresponding to the inner 
pound. It was much inferior, as a great many salmon escaped by the entrance, which had to bo 
wide to induce them to enter at all, and in this way the very largest salmon were always lost, being 
too large to mesh. Still farther back the pound was represented by a mere bend of the net at its 
outer end, and this was also preceded by the simple straight gill-net which was in common use for 
the capture of salmon in Penobscot River and Bay in the eighteenth and early part of the nine- 
teenth centuries. The improvements were very gradually made, and as late as 1850 fishing with 
nets with only the bend at the extremity was common. The trap is used only in Penobscot Bay, 
and with the exception of a single net set in 1880 at Searsport, it is confined to the west side of 
the bay below Belfast, and to Long Island. 
CURING AND MARKETING.—In the early days of the Maine salmon-fishery the bulk of the 
catch was either salted down iu barrels or smoked. For smoking, the salmon were prepared by 
first splitting, removing the backbone, but leaving the head on, and salting for two or three days, 
according to the size of the fish. When sufficiently salted they were washed off, spread by 
applying thin braces of cedar or spruce across the back, and then hung up in the highest part of 
a little domestic smoke house. Constant exposure to the smoke for two or three days completed 
the process. 
Salt salmon were to some extent consumed in local markets, but it appears that the greater 
portion was sent out of the State. Smoked salmon became early in the present century an article 
of traftic with the larger sea-ports of other States. Many were shipped on vessels laden with lum- 
ber and miscellaneous produce. Small vessels belonging in Southern New England used to visit 
several of the larger rivers annually and load with pickled shad and smoked salmon, buying a 
part of their salmon already smoked and smoking part themselves. This trade died out before 
1850. 
With the growth of the modern demand and the modern facilities for preservation and trans- 
portation, the practice of marketing fresh increased, and for many years it has been exclusively 
employed. For this purpose each fisherman has an ice-house angl puts up a supply of ice every 
winter. As soon as caught the salmon are placed on ice. The dealers have like facilities, and 
in transportation the salmon are always packed in ice. There is a considerable local demand for 
salmon in the cities and villages of Maine, but this is partly supplied from the rivers of New 
Brunswick, and much the greater portion of those caught in Maine is shipped to Boston, where 
most of them are retailed. 
THE SHAD (CLUPEA SAPIDISSIMA). 
NATURAL HISTORY.—This is the common shad of the Atlantic rivers from the Saint Lawrence 
to the Gulf of Mexico. It is the finest in quality of all those members of the herring family that 
frequent fresh water, as it is of all the Clupeide of North America. In Maine it attains a size of 
12 pounds, but this is extremely rare, the average being not far from 3 pounds, and the ordinary 
range from 2 to 5 pounds. 
The shad is mainly a marine feeder, but it reproduces its kind exclusively in fresh water, 
spending several weeks in the rivers for that purpose in May, June, and July. The earliest shad 
