THE RIVER FISHERIES OF MAINE. 689 
The dip-net fisheries for alewives are next in importance to the weir fisheries. It is by this 
method that the alewives are taken at Damariscotta Mills, Warren, East Machias, and Dennys- 
ville. The dip-net is a very eeonomical piece of apparatus, and requires no very expensive fixtures, 
but for its effective use it is essential that all the alewives shall be compelled to pass a narrow or 
difficult place within reach of the nets. This only happens in rivers where their spawning-grounds 
lie above tide-water, and where obstructions, natural or artificial, exist. 
The form and construction of the dip-net vary considerably in different localities. Those found 
of late in use at Damariscotta and Warren have wooden bows bent into an oval form 2 feet wide 
and seized on to wooden handles, the bag being knit of coarse cotton twine and hung about 3 feet 
leep; they are plied in narrow basins or artificial inclosures which the fish are allowed to enter. 
At East Machias, where the fish are dipped directly from the open river, they use larger nets 5 
feet deep, hung on a steel bow 34 feet in diameter, at the end of a pole from 10 to 17 feet long. 
Platforms are erected at points most convenient for dipping; generally along-side a pool just 
below an obstruction, where the fish congregate. It is necessary that the water be swift and 
somewhat broken, otherwise the fish will dodge the net. Upon the platform are aiso the tubs or bins 
into which the fish are thrown as they are dipped. These fisheries are operated almost wholly 
in the afternoons of pleasant days. In cloudy weather the alewives are very backward about 
attempting the ascent past difficult places, and at night they invariably fall back into quiet pools, 
where they lie until the next day is well advanced. The run of fish lasts about a month, but the 
most of the catch is often effected during a single week at the height of the season. 
The alewife fisheries have in numerous instances been from an early day held as municipal 
property by the towns in which they are located. They have been generally, if not always, 
wppropriated in accordance with an enabling act of the legislature, which describes in detail the 
way in which they shall be managed. In some cases, the towns are to choose “fish committees,” 
who shall capture the fish, personally or by proxy; in other cases the privilege of taking them is 
0 be sold at auction to the highest bidder, but in either case it is generally provided that citizens 
of the town shall be allowed to buy limited quantities of fish at a fixed price, and certain poor 
yeople are supplied gratis. If. there is a surplus the committee or the lessee can dispose of them 
\s they see fit. These town fisheries in most cases nominally include also salmon and shad, but 
»n the small rivers both of those species have long since been practically exterminated. 
UTILIZATION.—Alewives are used as bait for deep-sea fisheries to a small extent, but by far 
he greater part are used as food for man. The prevailing methods of curing, are, first to salt 
md smoke them, second, to pickle and afterwards pack them in barrels. The former method is 
renerally regarded as more profitable for fishermen who are able to retail the products of their 
isheries, and is therefore most employed by them, each man having a little smoke-house of his 
»wn. Where great quantities are taken by one party, as by the lessees of the Damariscotta fish- 
‘ries, they are barreled and sent to the wholesale markets. On the Kennebec, about seven-cighths 
of the alewives caught are smoked and consumed locally, and smoking has been the prevalent 
node of curing for many years. On the Penobscot, at Bucksport, previous to 1830, the most of 
ihe alewives were pickled, but the practice of smoking came into general use shortly after that 
late and has for many years entirely supplanted pickling. 
For smoking, alewives are first prepared by salting lightly in a large tub, without scaling or 
way other dressing; they are treated with about 8 quarts of salt to a barrel of fish. Some add 2 
ounces of saltpeter. In three days the fish are sufficiently “struck,” and they are then, after 
insing in clean water, impaled on straight sticks of split cedar or spruce, which are thrust through 
ihe gills, ten on a stick (formerly twelve), and hung up in the smoke-house. On the ground beneath 
cer eS, aa 
