704 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
thirds of them in the latter city. They are uncommonly large. Some of the fishermen say they 
will average 6 or 7 to the pound, and that the largest will weigh 7 to 9 ounces; but it will not do 
to accept these figures without question. 
Harrington River.—This is a tidal estuary lying wholly in the town of Harrington, and 
fed by a single fresh-water stream, a mere brook. The fisheries followed are: Ist, a summer 
fishery, with weirs for miscellaneous fish, in which a few alewives and shad are taken; 2d, a win- 
ter fishery for smelts, with bag-nets and weirs; 3d, a winter fishery for eels, with spears. 
The summer fishery employed in 1880 but one man, who built a single weir. 
The smelt fishery employed sixteen men, who set 18 bag-nets and built 4 weirs. They took 
114 tons of smelts, which were marketed, one-half in New York, three-eighths in Boston, and one- 
eighth in Philadelphia. The weir fishery for smelts has been carried on here for thirteen years, 
and the net fishery for ten years. 
The eel fishery is not pursued persistently. The spears took about half a ton and a ‘ton was 
obtained from the weirs. Some of them are salted, but most of them are sold fresh. They aver- 
age, alive, half a pound in weight. The largest known weighed 4 pounds. 
Narracuaagus Rrver.—This river is larger than the three last mentioned, draining a terri- 
tory of 215 square miles. In early times great numbers of salmon, shad, and alewives were taken 
here, but the dams at Cherryfield long ago destroyed them. Smelts have been taken in bag-nets 
in recent years, but this fishery also has been suspended, and the weir is this year quite unpro- 
ductive. 
TunK RIveR.—Another very small stream, draining ouly 60 square miles of territory. There 
are some alewives, eels, and tom-cods caught and now and then a salmon, but the only fishes taken 
in numbers enough to be of any importance are smelts, which are fished for with weirs and bag-nets. 
There was but one weir built in 1879~80, but 10 nets were in use, giving employment to nine men. 
The nets are plain bags, and are set in a Jine up and down the narrow channel, but, in obedience 
to local custom, never across it. The total catch was 44 tons of smelts. 
West Bay (Gouldsborough).—This is not an established fishing ground, but in the winter of 
1879~80 two men fished here with a bag-net for smelts, and caught 3,000 pounds. 
WEstT GOULDSBOROUGH.—Here is a fishery for alewives in the stream, which forms the outlet 
of Jones Pond, which is held as private property and claimed to be originally and always an arti- 
ficial fishery. One Colonel Jones, one of the early settlers and proprietor of the mills at this place, 
about 1794 got some alewives from Mount Desert and put them into the mill-pond, thus estab- 
lishing the brood in the stream. From that time down to the present it has been maintained 
wholly by carrying up and turning into the pond a few of the alewives caught. It has been the 
ordinary practice to carry up a basketful (one-third of a bushel) for each barrel killed. When the 
father of the present proprietors was in possession, they once caught a great quantity, estimated 
at over 200 barrels, but during the past twenty years the catch has ranged from 40 to 100 barrels, 
and in 1880 was as low as 30 barrels. They are all smoked and marketed locally. 
SULLIVAN RIVER.—Some of the tributaries of this river have in former times supported 
alewife fisheries, as attested by tradition and by the record of legislation. In 1831 the legislature 
passed an act to regulate the alewife fishery in the town of Franklin, and in 1833 it passed another 
with reference to the town of Sullivan; but all these fisheries suffered the common fate—extinction 
by dams. In the expansion of the river known as Hog Bay smelt fisheries on a small scale have 
been carried on occasionally, but not regularly, and eel fisheries of some local importance exist at 
the east end of the bay in Donnel’s Stream. The entire yield for the census year amounted to but 
4,000 pounds of smelts and 5,000 pounds of eels. 
