Concord, Mass.
1910
May 17
( No 2 )
[May 17, 1910]

Scarcity of Fish
Due to chemical waste from mills at Maynard perhaps!

  Fish of nearly every kind appear to be very scarce in the
river this spring. We have tried for them repeatedly but have 
caught only a few Pouts, an Eel and three Perch. No Bream nor
Shiners have taken our hooks. Rand thinks that the chemicals
discharged into the Assabet at Maynard are killing the fish
here as well as above. He tells me the river banks were
lined with dead ones last summer. It may be that he
is right but the river has been fished very hard for several
seasons past & I suspect that has had something to
do with it. I have looked in vain along our shore
for nests of the Bream or Sun Fish. There was one
for every yard or two of gravelly bottom only a few
years ago. We caught the last fish of this species in 1908
trying for them without success last year.