684. HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
are taken in the Kennebec or tributaries during the last days of April, but the main run is in May 
and June. Before the erection of mill-dams the shad ascended the Kennebec and tributaries to a 
distance of 100 miles, and the Penobscot to a-distance of 170 miles from the sea; and it is probable 
that their spawning-grounds in those days were largely in the quiet stretches of river above the 
influence of the tide. But in recent times their migrations have been restricted to the tidal por- 
tions of both those rivers, as also of nearly all the rivers in the State, and their eggs are all laid 
in water subject to the action of the tides, yet entirely free from salt. The earliest ripe spawn is 
observed the last week in May. Spawning doubtless begins before June 1, but is mostly performed 
in June, while the latest shad are not ready till July—possibly a few individuals not until August. 
The poor and shrunken shad that have completed the work of spawning are first seen on their 
return to the sea about June 20, and they are constantly met with through July. They begin to 
feed before reaching the open sea, and recover a good deal of fat and flavor before disappearing. 
The eggs of shad have a slightly greater specific gravity than water. Extruded into the open 
waters, protected by their transparency, swayed hither and thither by the currents, they develop 
with great rapidity, and in three or four days, according to the temperature of the water, give 
birth to living fish. The young shad descend very shortly to sea. 
Shad are believed to attain maturity in three or four -years. A portion of the males have 
active sexual functions when a little larger than an alewife, and probably a year old. A more 
numerous class of immature individuals feed about the bays and in the mouths of the rivers dur- 
ing the summer later than the ascent of the main body of breeders. They are of smaller size, 
fatter, more numerous, with sexual functions dormant. The fishermen call these “ sea shad,” and 
consider them quite distinct from the “river shad” or “spring shad,” but there is abundant reason 
to believe them merely the common shad at a particular stage of growth. They never ascend the , 
rivers so far as the spawning shad, rarely showing themselves in any great numbers above the 
reach of brackish water. They frequent some salt bays entirely removed from fresh rivers; for 
instance, the northeast branch of Casco Bay, where fisheries for them have existed for many years, 
and have sometimes been quite productive. But these localities are in the vicinity of the Ken- 
nebec River, and I know of no instance of their occurrence at any great distance from a shad 
river. 
The original range of shad in Maine included almost if not quite every river in the State; but 
in the smaller rivers it does not appear from the scanty evidence attainable that they were ever 
very plenty. From nearly the whole extent of some of the larger rivers they were excluded by 
impassable falls, and from many of second size they were shut out by mill-dams at so early a date 
that their former presence is attested only by a dim tradition. In short, there are only three 
rivers in the State in which it is quite certain that there ever existed an important shad-fishery. 
These are the Saint Croix, Penobscot, and Kennebec, and in the Kennebec alone has the fishery 
continued to be of considerable importance to the present time, while in but three other rivers and 
a few salt bays is there now any attempt to fish for shad. 
MODES OF CAPTURE.— Shad are caught in weirs, seines, drift-nets, and dip-nets. 
Weirs.—The weir mainly employed at the present day for the capture of spring and summer 
fish in the Kennebec River, in which shad are the most important fish taken, differs from the sal- 
mon weir already described, in that the fish are not left by the retreating tide on a board floor, 
but in a deep and spacious inclosure, from which they are taken with a seine. They have been 
generally termed “deep-water” weirs, but, from the mode of operation, may be better styled 
“seine-weirs.” The seine-weir commonly consists of three pounds, denominated, “ first pound” or 
“ pasture,” “second ” or “ middle” pound, and “third” or “fish pound.” The latter is an inclosure 
