718 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
ground above Waterville as long as salmon were able to pass Augusta. There was at the 
same time a drift-net fishery of less importance at Augusta, several seine-fisheries, in which some 
salmon were taken at various points up and down the river, and a weir fishery near its mouth. 
An eye witness* estimated the number of canoes fishing with drift-nets at Ticonic Falls since the 
beginning of the present century at about forty yearly, each canoe employing two men and one 
net. On one occasion as many as eighty-two canoes were counted at work at the same time. 
These canoes were all log dug-outs. Their ordinary catch was estimated at one hundred and 
twenty salmon for each canoe for the season, which would give a total of forty-eight hundred. 
Another witness} estimated the number of drift-nets fishing at Augusta in 1820 at twelve, and 
their catch at four thousand salmon. These are, however, off-hand estimates, and are liable 
to be far out of the way. In 1837 and 1838 the dam at Augusta was built, completely block- 
ing the way of migratory fishes, and extinguishing all the fisheries of the upper waters. Of the 
salmon fishing below Augusta, we know that it was in a flourishing condition as late as 1814, 
when an old-fashioned shoal-water weir at Abagadasset Point, in Merrymeeting Bay, took one 
hundred salmon in a single season,{ whereas in recent years a far more efficient weir on the same 
spot rarely or never takes a8 many as half a dozen in aseason. From 1826 to 1835 the yield of 
salmon continued good, though by no means averaging so well as in 1814, which may have been 
an exceptional year. From 1837 to 1842 there was a decidedly higher yield, which was especially 
noticeable at Augusta. After this there was a sharp decline, which continued till 1855 or 1860, 
when the lowest point was reached, just short of utter extinction. The only breeding ground 
remaining accessible to the salmon was on the gravel beds within the first half-mile below the 
Augusta dam, and to this opportunity is the continuance of the brood in the river doubtless due. 
Since 1860 there have been several fluctuations, 1868 having been the best year then known since 
1850, and 1873 having been still better. The number taken in 1867 was estimated by the state 
commission at twelve hundred, but this is regarded by some as too high an estimate. The data 
obtained by a careful inquiry (but not a thorough canvass) in 1873 led me to estimate the number 
taken in that year at fifteen hundred, of which nine hundred were taken below Bath and six 
hundred above that point. In latter years there has been a gradual decline, with some minor 
fluctuations. The total catch in 1880 was two hundred and sixty-nine salmon. 
For the past twenty-five years the fishery for salmon has been little more than an adjunct of the 
shad and alewife fishery. It is probable that not a single weir would be built or seine operated on 
the river were it not for the shad and alewives, and the drift-nets at Augusta, the only implements 
used expressly for salmon, have rarely numbered more than two ina season, and have sometimes 
been suspended for a whole summer. 
* Mr. William Getchell, who owned an island at Ticonic Falls, and carried on a dip-net fishery there, mainly for 
shad, from 1804 to 1837, and who was in 1867 still living in Benton. 
tMr. William Kennedy, of Augusta. 
{Tho authority for this statement is Mr. John Brown, of Bowdoinham, who was at that time a boy living on the 
point. Mr. Brown has a daily record of his own fishing, extending, almost without interruption, from 1826 to 1861. 
With his free permission I draw the following facts therefrom; Mr. Brown’s location was not favorable for salmon ; 
no more, indeed, was any part of Merrymeeting Bay. The shad and alewives were the principal fish taken. The 
average number of salmon taken in his weir during the ten years ending in 1835 was 21.6 yearly. In 1837 there was an 
increase to 41, a greater number than any previous year since the record began. In 1838 there was a still greater 
number, 65. The four following years the catch was 46, 27, 49, and 27, respectively, and the average for the six years 
ending with 1845 was 42.5. This is held by Mr. Brown to show very plainly the effect of the Augusta dam in detain- 
ing the salmon, and even impelling them to retrace their course from Augusta toward the sea, at least as far as 
Merrymeeting Bay. From this time there was a sudden falling pff, the average catch for the next five years being 
but 14. In 1850 it was but 5, the lowest point yet, and in 1855, 1857, and 1858, but one each year, notwithstanding that 
a more efficient weir had taken the place of the old one. 
