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THE RIVER FISHERIES OF MAINE. 721 
Fifty years later than this the whites had taken posession of the country and began to build 
saw-mills. They found the alewives ascending the river in immense numbers, extending their 
migrations to Norridgewock Falls, 91 miles from the sea, and up the Sandy River some 20 miles 
farther. Their principal breeding places were, however, in the lakes and ponds of tributaries 
nearer the sea, especially Cobbosseecontee stream (at Gardiner), Seven-mile Brook (in Vassal- 
borough), and the Sebasticook River. The first of these afforded an extensive breeding ground 
in its 21 square miles of lakes and ponds, and must have contributed an important quota to the 
population of the river, but it was early closed. In 1787 we find the town of Wales (then includ- 
ing Monmouth) appointing a fish committee, which the next year was designated a “committee 
to see that the fishways are kept open according to law.” The dams at Gardiner, however, were 
impassable, fishways were not maintained, and very early in the present century this brood of 
alewives was extinguished. A similar fate overtook the alewives of Nehumkeag and Worromon- 
togus streams, two small tributaries on the east side of the river. At Seven-mile Brd6k and in 
*the Sabasticook the alewives continued to breed until 1837 , when the dam at Augusta finally cut 
them off. 
The Sebasticook was probably the principal nursery of alewives for the Kennebec. It has a 
lake surface of 48 square miles, nearly every mile of which was accessible. After suffering great 
diminution while running the gauntlet of the tidal fisheries, there still remained a vast throng of 
fish to attempt the ascent of the Sebasticook. Fishing in this river was at first entirely free to 
the public, but after some years it was found that there was a diminution in the numbers of 
alewives, and protective legislation was then obtained for the most important points, which were 
at the falls, natural and artificial. The fisheries at such places were generally put into the hands 
of the towns. It does not seem that these measures were entirely effective, but that there was a 
gradual decline from obstructions and excessive fishing. There was adam at the upper falls in 
Clinton previous to 1775, but it was provided with a fishway and the alewives continued to ascend 
in great numbers as far as Newport, on the main Sebasticook, and to the principal lakes on the 
tributaries. In 1809 a more formidable dam was put across the river at Benton. A serious fall- 
ing off of the fish was soon perceptible and the dam was cut away to allow them again to ascend. 
In 1814 the town of Benton took charge of the fishery under legislative authority, and by a more 
careful management effected a substantial improvement. The right to take the fish was sold at 
auction yearly and brought from $500 to $1,500, though under the condition that the poor should 
be supplied gratis and all townsmen at a set price. The last year of the fishery (about 1837) it 
sold for $225; one or two years earlier, for $500. 
Thus one by one the feeders of the river were cut off, with only one exception, that of Ne- 
quasset stream, in Woolwich, which remained open until very recent times, and, indeed, is not re- 
garded now as permanently closed. The breeding ground in the main Kennebec was also largely 
curtailed, and is now limited to the tidal portions of the river in and above Merrymeeting Bay, 
and of the small tributaries centering in Merrymeeting Bay. So far as they go, however, these 
waters are very good nurseries, and in its yield of alewives the Kennebec now stands third among 
the rivers of Maine, only the Damariscotta and Penobscot surpassing it. 
Of the number of alewives caught yearly in early times we are no better able to form an 
estimate than in the case of salmon and shad. . There can, however, be no reasonable doubt that 
tradition is right in assigning them numbers far greater than has been known to any one now 
living. There must have been a great decline in their numbers consequent upon the erection of 
impassable dams across the streams by which they were wont to reach some of their best spawning 
SEo. v——46 % 
