NOTES ON THE ATLANTIC SALMON. 
97 
Instances of the capture of salmon in the coast waters of Maine are naturally 
numerous, and without significance so far as the purposes of tire preseut paper are 
concerned. The existence of two important salmon rivers, the Kennebec and the 
Penobscot, alfords an easy explanation of the presence of salmon on the shores on 
either side of the mouths of those streams. In tire report of the U. S. Commission of 
Fisli and Fisheries for 1872-73 Mr. diaries G. Atkins, now superintendent of the 
salmon rearing establishment at East Orland, Me., and an authoritative writer on the 
Atlantic salmon, contributes some notes on its occurrence in the sea adjacent to 
Penobscot Bay and at Eichmoud Island, near Portland. These cases, however, have 
little bearing on the subject in hand, as Mr. Atkins suggests iu a recent letter. 
A special inquiry, ])ersonally conducted on Matinicus, Monhegan, and other islands 
lying far off the Maine coast, and special researches there made with appro[>riate 
api)aratus, would doubtless disclose many interesting facts regarding the salmon of 
a practical and scientific nature. A few apparently unrecorded notes concerning the 
fish among islands off the island of Mount Desert may be given, which are probably 
indicative of what may be expected in other sections. 
Mr. W. I. Mayo, who has fished herring brush-weirs at the Cranberry Isles for 
many years, and is a lifedong fisherman in that section, communicates the intelligence 
that salmon were first observed about those islands iu 1888. On June 17 a salmon, 
weighing 20 iiounds, was taken in a herring weir, and on June 19 another, weighing 
19 pounds, was caught. On July 14 of the same year G salmon, weighing 4 to G pounds 
apiece, were secured, but were liberated on account of their size. During the four years 
intervening between 1888 and 1893 none was taken around these islands, but in 
June of the latter year they reappeared. On June 11 a salmon weighing 15 iioiinds 
was taken in a weir, and on various occasions during that month a number weighing 
12 to 15 pounds each were caught by boat fishermen on trawl lines fished for cod. 
The trawls were baited with herring and set on the bottom in rather deep water. 
Mr. Mayo states that these were the first salmon ever taken on trawl lines in that 
region. The Cranberry Isles lie oft' the southeastern part of Mount Desert Island, and 
are about 25 miles east from Penobscot Bay and about 35 miles iu a straight line from 
the mouth of the Penobscot Eiver. 
On the Massachusetts coast salmon are now regularly taken each year at most of 
the important pound-net and trap fisheries. The largest numbers are caught iu Cape 
Cod Bay. A State law prohibits the taking of salmon in nets and requires the return 
to the water alive of all fish so caught. This inakes the fishermen diffident about 
giving information and renders difficult the determination of the abundance of the fish. 
On June G, 1879, the Cape Ann Advertiser, of Gloucester, contained the following 
note : 
A 10-poimcl salmon was taken from a weir off Magnolia Thursday night. This is the first salmon 
caught off Cape Ann for over thirty ye.ars. On S.aturday morning three more large salmon were 
taken. The fishermen .are highly elated at the prospect of salmou-c.atching. 
During the past five or six years a few salmon have been taken almost every season 
in the vicinity of Gloucester, the average annual catch being 4 to G fish. In 1888 the 
State fish commissioners reported the capture of 18 salmon iu trajis at Manchester and 
Gloucester, Iu 1893, 13 traps iu the neighborhood of Gloucester took 5 salmon. 
T. C. B. 1894—7 
