THE SALMON FISHERY OF PENOBSCOT BAY AND RIVER. 
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Salmon weir , Penobscot. — Leader of 
stakes interwoven with brush, 175 
yards long. “Great pond” brush, 
42 foet long. “Middle pond "and 
“back pond,” netting with board 
floor, eacli 10 feet long. Outer en- 
trance, 16 feet wide ; middle, 2 feet; 
inner, 1 foot. Value, $75. 
Salmon weir , Buclcsport. — Leader, 
brush, 4 to 8 rods long. Middle 
pond, 40 feet long, 8-foot, entrance; 
inner side, brush ; outer side, twine. 
Pockets, twine, 10 feet long, 10-inch 
entrances, wooden floor. Value, 
$25. Some weirs have only one (up- 
stream) pocket. 
'ITooTc weir,” Orland . — A brush hook, 
about 50 feet long and extending 
down stream, is built on some of the 
weirs. It serves the purpose of lead- 
ing the fiah into the net. Value, $35. 
Apparatus and methods of the fishery . — There is probably no other river in the 
United States in which a fishery of such magnitude has undergone so few changes 
with respect to methods, number of traps operated, and sites where nets are set, as 
the Penobscot. This is chiefly owing (1) to the character of the bottom, (2) to the 
fact that the fishing is a riparian privilege enjoyed only by those who own land 
fronting on the water, (3) to the circumstance that the fishing is almost entirely of a 
semiprofessional character, and lias been taken up by generation after generation as 
a part of the regular duties connected with the small farms, and (4) to the small number 
of food-fislies occurring in the river, and- the preponderating importance of two of 
them — the salmon and the alewife — for which the nets are exclusively set. 
The salmon fishery of the Penobscot basin is carried on with practically a single 
type of apparatus, namely, the brush weir. In most parts of the region this trap is 
used in the same form that it had in the primitive days of the fishery, but in some 
sections the weir has undergone evolution into a combination brush and twine trap, 
and in places into a trap made wholly of netting. 
