706 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
but two which are now accessible to anadromous fishes, the Bagaduce in Castine and Brooksville 
and the Eastern River in Orland, and even in these, especially in the former, there are serious 
hindrances to the ascent of the alewife, the only species that visits them. 
Taken as a whole, the upper waters are well fitted for the propagation of salmon, as they 
abound in gravelly rapids, alternating with quiet stretches and deep pools, in which the salmon 
may bide their time, and to which they may retreat after spawning. The quiet waters of the main 
river and its principal branches are well adapted to the breeding of shad, and of the numerous 
lakes, whose number is 467 and aggregate area about 585 square miles, a sufficient number were 
naturally accessible to alewives to afford them very extensive breeding grounds. There are 
no insurmountable natural obstacles to the ascent of shad and alewives on the main river for 120 
miles from the sea, and in some of the tributaries the way was open for nearly as great a distance, 
while salmon were able to push many miles farther up. At the present time both the main river 
and nearly all its branches are greatly obstructed by dams, which prevent the ascent of shad 
beyond tide-waters, which have extinguished the ancient broods of alewives that bred in the 
main river or tributaries above Bangor, and still shut them out from nearly all tributaries, and 
which have greatly hindered salmon in their ascent. All the principal dams on the main river are 
provided with fishways, which serve to keep the way open for salmon to their natural breeding 
grounds on the headwaters, but of neither alewives nor shad have new broods yet been established. 
Present condition of the Penobscot fisheries.—The river fisheries of the Penobscot are now con- 
ducted for the capture of salmon, alewives, eels, and smelts. The few shad and bass taken are 
merely incidental to the salmon and alewife fishery, and the tom-cods to the smelt fishery. 
Salmon.—Salmon are fished for with pound-nets or “traps” in the bay, with weirs in the 
upper bay and river as far up as Orrington, and with drift-nets at Bangor. The pound-net 
fishing is limited to the east shore of the island of Isleborough, and to the towns of Camden, 
Lincolnville, and Northport, on the western side of the bay. Nets of similar but simpler con- 
struction were formerly used on the eastern shore of the bay in the town of Brooksville, but since 
1850 they have been abandoned. 
The Isleborough salmon fishery is confined to the upper part of the eastern shore of the 
island, centering about Sabbath day Harbor; some berths formerly occupied with nets toward the 
south end have been abandoned as unprofitable. The entire western shore of the island is bare 
of nets, no profitable “berth” having been discovered. In 1880 there were 14 gangs of nets set 
on the island, comprising a total of 17 traps, and the aggregate catch that year was 900 salmon. 
As compared with 1873, this is a slight falling off in the catch, the number of gangs and traps 
remaining the same. 
In Camden, Lincolnville, and Northport, salmon nets are scattered along the coast a distance 
of about 12 miles, but they are plentiest and most productive on the north side of Duck Trap 
Harbor, in the town of Lincolnville, where on a single mile of shore are nine gangs, of which one 
has four traps and four others have three traps each. In all there were in this district 27 gangs 
of nets, embracing 45 traps. The catch in 1884 was 1,398 salmon, being 163 less than in 1873. 
Above Duck Trap Harbor there are no fisheries for a distance of 12 miles along the shore. 
At Moose Point, near Searsport, and at Castine, on the east shore of the bay, begin the weir fish- 
eries, which extend, with occasional interruptions, as far up the river as Orringtou. These weirs 
are built all on essentially the same plan, that of the ordinary floored weir, in some places exclu- 
sively for salmon and in others exclusively for alewives, but in most cases both species are taken 
in numbers enough to divide the interest of the fishermen between them. 
