and the DMR men and women all will go out to celebrate and toast their victory. They will have to drink a lot to blur the thoughts that what they have done is most shameful and morally wrong. I do want to thank the 3 committee members that stayed to listen to Doug Watts. You can here the testimony at http://www.penbay.org
I will list in no particular order. If anyone has fish snippets of history, email it to
friendsofsebago@yahoo.com
or I can give you the sign in info.
_____________________________________________________________
From Edward Earl Maine Coast and its Fisheries
www.nefsc.noaa.gov/publications/classics/goode1884/2-1.pdf -
Two voyages to New England _John Jocelyn London 1675
Casco Bay Region
p.82 After speaking of the immense number of alewives in all the streams in April he says, “ Trout there be good store in every brook, ordinarily two and twenty inches long.”
“ A wonderful number of herring were cast up on shore at high water in Black Point Harbor, so that they might have gone half way the leg in them for a mile together.”
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New York Times April 7, 1889
6/ The ATLANTIC SALMON (salmo salar)- This also called Kennebec Salmon and Maine salmon. It inhabits the North atlantic, ascending rivers in Northern Europe and America. The size that this species attains is too well known to need mention. A few years ago the British museum obtained a specimen weighing 50 pounds. The results of artificial propagation by which the species has been established as far south as the Delaware River are known to everyone. The landlocked form, known as the Sebago salmon, landlocked salmon, or winninish, inhabits some streams and lakes of Main and Canada.
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New York Times Feb. 20, 1881
Prices of best choicest, and freshest fish in the New York markets
Striped bass-Hudson 15 cent/pound
Smelts-Rhode Island 18 cents/pound
salmon-refridgerated 35 cents/pound
shad-North Carolina-(roe fish) 50 cent/pound
shad-Savannah- 25 cents/pound
white perch -15 cents/ pound
spanish mackerel- 35 cents.pound
green turtle - 20 cents/pound
terrapins $40/dz
haddock 8 cents/pound
cod-Boston 8 cents/pound
halibut- 15 cent/pound
black-fish- 15 cent/pound
herring- 6 cents/pound
large flounders for filet del sole 12.5 cents/pound
eels-18 cents/ pound
lobster 15 cents/pound (high demand-poor supply)
scallops- 50 cents/quart
clams- finest largest 3$ per 100
smoked salmon 20 cents per pound
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A TALE FOR THOSE WHO LIKE SALMON—ON A HOOK—OR ON A FORK
LOUIS M LYONS (1923-1960); Nov 18, 1923; ProQuest Historical Newspapers Boston Globe (1872-1925)
Pg A7
The Picture and Drama of Keeping the Sporty Delicacy From Becoming Extinct
By Louis M. Lyons
Raymond, Me—Darting long shadows across white beds of shallow pools-dark masses like shadows of clouds moving swiftly over river bottoms—startling splashes of great fish jumping and playing above the swift current. – leaping gleams of silver in sunlit spray. It is spawning time. The land-locked salmon of Sebago Lake battle their way up-streams to the pool where life began, to breed.
Instinct is stronger than memory with these speckled beauties of the coast lakes and rivers. Since man became a fishermen. , salmon have leapt and darted and fought their way up from the sea to Sebago Lake, and from Sebago Lake up Jordan river to a quiet pool to spawn.
Mill dams have cut off their retreat to the sea, but the salmon still make their fall pilgrimage to the same spawning ground. The State of Maine has established a hatchery beside the spawning pool in the Jordan River, to catch the salmon and propagate their breed in less favored lakes and ponds.
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Still Feel the Urge
Still they come annually, to be caught at the spawning ground and spoiled of their eggs. They return, and their cultivated young grow up in the hatchery are released and come back when the urge is on the Fall to entangle their shimmering bodies in the seine of the hatchery superintendent and leave their millions of orange eggs in man –made runways.
The age-formed habit of the breed, overriding the experience of the individual, is the salvation of the land-locked salmon. Their millions of egg masses-suggesting tapioca pudding seen through an orange colored glass and slightly magnified- are protected in the hatchery from the hazards of the open pool, to replenish the waters of Sebago Lake, and stock the ponds and lakes of Maine and less favored States.
Swimming right up to the door of the hatchery to spawn, the fish play into the hands of the of the forces of conservation, whose purpose is the preservation of this proud beauty, already rare, that makes Maine’s lakes the goal of a Nation’s fishermen.
Eggs of the land-locked salmon have been shipped, packed in moss, to stock the ponds of Australia. A quarter of a million fledgling salmon are released into Sebago Lake and the lesser bodies of water of York and Cumberland Counties, Maine, each Spring, to maintain the supremacy of the fishing grounds of the Pine Tree State.
Hundreds Come to Watch
Spawning is the romance of the stream in the Fall. It is the significant time of the giving of new life; and it stirs a response in the breast of sportsmen and lovers of wild life equaled only by the thrill of that day in April when the ice goes out of the lake and the season is ready for the cast of the line that may land, after fierce struggle with a game foe, as noble a prize as fresh waters offers.
Every Fall, in mid-November, George Libby, superintendent of Maine State Hatchery No. 1, in the neat little village of Raymond on the Jordan River, and his rangy assistant, Albert Plummer, “sweep” the natural spawning ground at the doors of the hatchery, and “strip” the captured fish of the teeming new life within them.
There are people, it is said, living within a dozen miles of the hatchery, who have never been present at this remarkable spectacle. But it seems unbelievable to the hundreds who motor out 22 miles form Portland and occasional adventurers who travel all the way from Boston to seek such a thrill as the sportsmen rarely finds scheduled for his delectation.
Libby, keeping close watch on the spawning ground, senses when the full tide of salmon has surged into the breeding pool. The word goes out that the time has come. Tomorrow they will “sweep” the pool.
A thousand spectators line the banks of the spawning ground on a clear blue Indian Summer morning, when Libby and Plummer get out their long seine to trap hundreds of the speckled beauties.
Six Inches in Two Years
And what a sight it is! Sportsmen and State game officials, moving-picture men, reporters and enthusiasts gather early at the hatchery. They gasp as a 15-pound vision of gray silver leaps out of the pool, to dive again and stir a comrade to thrash the surface with speckled back and waving fins.
They follow the hatchery superintendent about as he prepares his nets and lays his ropes. They inspect the hatchery, peering into the cement pools, where thousands of minnow sized salmon hide the sandy bottom, a black mass, now breaking into chaos in multiple layers of darting slivets.
They ply the warden with a hundred queries, “How many fish in there? ”About 250,000” “Wow” “How many do you put back in the lakes every year?” “Just let out 240,000 this Summer.” “How old are these in here?” “Six months, hatched in March, the hatch of last spawning. “
And these six-inch fellows, big enough so that their speckled-gray backs identify them as salmon, even in the thick mass of them . They are from the eggs of two Autumns back. Another year will see them released into the stream that flows down to Sebago Lake, the famous home of land-locked salmon in the East.
And in two more Falls they will come surging, fighting, back up against the current, to be caught in those same nets and tossed onto those same cells, to yield up their spawn to the protection of their official guardians.
There Are Trout, Too
Rubbing across each other’s backs in these small tanks, with fresh water flowing over them all the time, they wear their dorsal fins off, and this is the one identifying trace of their hand rearing. The full nets Libby and his helper scoop out of the the spawning pool yield native salmon and hatchery salmon, and the only difference is the dorsal fin. On the native fish it is a conspicuous pennant, waving over the center of the back, two to three inches long, the banner of freedom. It is reduced to a vestige on the hatchery fish. By this slight blemish does Libby recognize his pets when they come back to him every Fall.
“What do you feed the young salmon on?” somebody wants to know.
“Sheep pluck” (the livers and lights and offal of the sheep slaughter houses). The hatchery has a contract with a Chicago packer, and used 800 pounds of “pluck” a week all Summer. In the Winter the fish are less active, and the order is reduced to 600 pounds a week.
They hatch trout here too, more questions reveal. About 250,000 are released each Summer to restock the brooks of two counties. But the salmon are the principal work of the wardens.
As Libby, and Plummer make all ready for the “sweep” a string of youngsters comes whooping down and galloping down the banks, from the village. School has let out for the more significant lesson out doors. The first arrivals shout back to the less swift that the nets are out and filling up.
Sweeping the Pool
Making one pair of ropes fast to the left bank, Plummer wades across the wide pool in hip boots, pulling the long seine with him. Libby gets in a rowboat and takes up his position behind the center of the seine. Plummer swings down stream and starts back to “sweep” the salmon in the encircling seine. The boss in the boat keeps the net from catching on rocks at the bottom and lifts the line of corks when an ambitious, fighting captive leaps clear out of the water in a jump for freedom.
As Plummer pulls in to shore and narrows the enclosure within the netting, shoals of salmon are visible against the white bottom of the pool, darting into the meshes and backing out , moving in a mass to right or left, flopping, jumping, seeking a way out.
Libby is here and there with his knife to cut the net and release fish that have forced their heads through to the gills.
Now, with the circle narrowed to 20 feet across, Plummer makes his ropes fast ashore, Libby pulls the back of the seine up over the gunwale of the boat to make the wildest jump futile, and both wardens wade into the trapped salmon with hand nets on nine-foot poles. Each scoop up a netful, all
he can carry, with both hands in a short grip on the pole.
They might be poultrymen, separating pullets from roosters, as they toss the big salmon by their tails into the tank, much as a hen fancier might throw cockerels into a breeding pen. The males go into one compartment, the females in another.
Record is 21 Pounds
They tell the males at a glance, almost without a glance it seems; though the only difference one can see, and all the wardens acknowledge for their guidance, is that the under jaw of the male fish has a hook which the female lacks. A hooked nose goes into this tank, and a straight one into that. Most of the fish have their mouths shut, but by some intuition the wardens segregate the sexes without prying their mouths open.
“Don’t look a bit alike.” They smile, while their visitors clamor to know what apparent difference there is between the sexes.
An hours steady work yields 300 or more good sized salmon. Another “sweep” and they will have enough. For a big female ought to yield 20,000 to 25,000 eggs and any fish into the thousands.
The catch of each dip is quickly transported to the artificial pools. But sometimes a single kicking salmon is a netful, and often two or three are all that can be hauled out at once. Many a netful comes up only after a tussle that suggests the sort of a fight one of these old lingers would put up at the end of the line, with all the jake to run in.
Now and then Libby or Plummer holds up a whopper to appease the eager throng! “How much will he weigh?” “Twelve pounds.” “O, 15”!
But the record catch for Sebago Lake is 21 pounds, and the wardens know that these teaming monsters of their breed don’t go over 13 pounds and most are under 10. But they are beautiful fish and a treat, their admirers avow, worth all the trip.
Some a Dozen Years Old
Some o these big fish are 12 to 15 years old. They are said to put on a pound a year in good feeding. And such a close up as we get of them! The camera men take amazing pictures of a leaping salmon, and focus close to a golden-brown beauty almost a yard long. Libby tosses him gasping in an ecstacy of ozone, into a pool, and he lies on his side for a moment, exposing a length of white belly. But, tickled with the net, he comes to with a flop and a snap of angry tail that splashes water high and sends him clear across the tank.
It is a rare day for such a spectacle. Across Sebago lake mountains of blue clouds rise in mounting tiers like distant peaks behind the nearer foothills of the White Mountains. A keen breeze whips the water in steel gray ripples against the stones on the beach, and keeps coat collars buttoned up. The sun plays on the water, striking beams from flashing fins and glinting in iridescent dazzling rays from silver backs.
The State fish and game officials are on hand. Arthur Briggs, superintendent of the 12 Maine hatcheries, in hunting jacket, is checking up the number of salmon caught. Commissioner Willis E. Parsons, who has the responsibility for the $185,000 annual appropriation for the conserving of the wild life of Maine, says the “sweeping” here at Raymond is the best in the State.
These salmon that used to come up from the sea have been landlocked for 75 years at least. , he says, but their only adaptations has been a slight bleaching in color. They would make their way in salt water as well as their ancestors did, he say, if they could pass the mill dams to get back to the sea.
Hatch 95 Percent
T.A. James, curator of the State Museum, and his son, Milton C. James, scientist of the United States Bureau of Fisheries, are taking pictures. The curator says that 95 percent of the eggs hatch under artificial conditions. And that a good proportion of the fish hatched live to stock the lakes and ponds.
Not many of the fish are quite “ripe” yet Libby says. How does he know whether they are ready to spawn?” “ By the feel. The soft ones are ready”
He guesses it’ll be tomorrow or next day before he can strip many, But he’ll try to find out to strip for the movie man. He does. And the breathless crowd has to be entreated to stand back and give the camera light enough to function.
Libby sits in a kitchen chair with a tin pan on his knees. The State superintendent brings him one of his big pets, and he takes it across his lap, holding it with woolen mittens, tail over the pan, head under his arm. He handles his big fish as though it were something between a household pet and domestic animal.
There is no squeezing, His manipulation of the plump underside of his pet is that a gentle stroke, as he might pat a kitten. He suggests rather than forces the process.
Like Milking a Cow
The orange stream starts in driblets of jelly-like globules, each one perfect and separate; then comes in squirting torrent, and the stroking with the mitten becomes a milking motion.
“Stripping” must have gotten its name from the stripping of a cow, for the strokes suggest the final milking of the cream, or “strippings”, form the udder.
Now the pan is half full of egg masses and fish’s belly is as limp as a milked cow’s udder. She is put back tenderly in the pool to lie panting on her side at the bottom. But the stripping, properly done, does not hurt the fish, Curator James reassures.
Now the superintendent brings Libby a male. A whopper and a beauty, as the pushing sportsmen joyfully pronounce. The movie man cranks deliriously. He begs for a pose. “Turn his face this way”,” and the big fish blinks close to the camera.
The stripping of the male is quickly over. With almost the same motion, Libby milks the life-giving fluid over the egg masses. A stir with a feather mixes and fertilizes them..
But the incubation takes all Winter, The cold overflow form Panther Pond passing constantly over them is all the stimulus the eggs need. Some will be shipped out of the State, some to other hatcheries. But most will be hatched at Raymond next March and reared to maintain the salmon population of Sebago Lake.
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Maine’s Fish and Game.
Boston Daily Globe
November 10, 1886
Page 4
Transcribed by R. Wheeler
An Armed Camp on Crooked Brook to Protect the Beauties
Hatching Houses to Prevent the Destruction of Eggs
Bangor, Me. November 9 - “Every year I pack my traps, put $200 in my pockets, and go down into Maine on a hunting and fishing trip,” said a well-known Massachusetts man. “I go there because that State, through its game and fish laws, enforced as that have been by their game and fish commissioners, has made its territory one of the best hunting grounds in the country.”
“Why,” continues he, “there are no waters in the United States where salmon can be taken with a fly as, they can-in the Penobscot and St Croix, Kennebec or Penobscot rivers.”
A Globe man, being desirous of learning more about the protection of the game and fish of Maine, as well as the methods of hatching fish and stocking the ponds, lakes and streams, made a trip to some of the fisheries and hatching houses operated by Messrs. Stillwell and Stanley on behalf of the State and Professor Baird and E.G. Atkins on behalf of the United States.
At Orland, a few miles from Bucksport, Professor Baird established, several years ago, a “fishery,” and few miles from there, across a lake, a “hatching house”. It was to prevent the large destruction of salmon eggs that those interested in fish culture first established “experiment stations,” the result of which, although depriving many small fish of their salmon-egg diet, has added thousands of salmon to the waters of the State.
The Hatching house must be at a point below a dam, so that a “head” of water can be had. Here is erected a building so arranged that the temperature can be maintained at 33 degrees, or one degree above freezing. Inside are built long boxes, wide enough to admit the trays containing the eggs, and through which water flows constantly. After forty days the eggs change somewhat in their shape, and there is seen in one side the two eyes of what is soon to become a fish. If these fish are to placed are to be placed in distant waters, they are now transported, and in connection with transportation a remarkable occurrence takes place. These trays are taken from the water and so packed that the process of developing ceases altogether. Whether on day, one week, or one month be consumed in transit, the egg, on its arrival, has made no progress toward life, but placed in cool running water makes rapid progress. Soon the form of a minute fish is seen, but is a helpless thing still, and were it in the place where its mother intended to leave it would quite likely be eaten, even if the egg escaped. It has a sack about it which is really the shell of the egg, the gelatine -like covering first mentioned. This soon disappears, however, and the little fish, now possessing powers of locomotion, grows rapidly. For a time it is fed, and, later on, is given its freedom in some body of water. Ninety-five per cent, and in some cases 98 per cent. of all eggs taken are hatched, while left by the mother salmon in the spawning beds, only 8 per cent. are fertilized.
C.G. Atkins, who has represented the United States at Orland, but who is now in charge of the lobster and codfish hatchery at Woods Hole, Mass., has a hatching house also at Grand Lake Stream, where he hatches land-locked salmon. The State of Maine is also a subscriber here, but her purchases this year will be small, owing to the expenditures of a large amount in prosecuting the Shacker gang of deer poachers a Wesley, near the head waters of the Machias.
But Maine does not buy all her eggs from Commissioner Baird. The State commissioners have been looking for a location where they could operate on their own account. They not only found one, but the results have been such as not only to delight the official, but will astonish the good people of Maine in general and fishermen in particular. At a cost of about $500 there has been established a “fishery” and hatching house that will this year exceed in production and value anything of the kind in America.
Running into beautiful Sebago lake is a stream known as “Crooked Brook.” Although less than thirty miles from Portland the country round about is thinly settled and contains a lawless element, much given each year to the spearing of salmon on the spawning beds. From time to time wonderful tales of the catching of big fish would be heard, and an investigation by the State Commissioners convinced them of the truth of some of them. Of course they knew there were some ordinary fish in the lake, as they had placed them there, and, to protect them, expended quite a sum each year. Last August they decided to establish a fishery, and sent Mr. Harriman there from Orland. Four other men went also, all well armed, and having orders to fire on any and all poachers. September 1 saw a camp ready for the men, as well as pens for the salmon and the men watched the river by night and the trap by day, but no fish appeared until the middle of the month, at which time six medium- sized salmon put in an appearance, The “run” continued until October 21, at which time there had been caught about eighty fish, and commissioners, who had hoped to get one-half that number, were well pleased, being sure of securing 200,000 eggs. Then came a heavy rain and after that, about November 2, a remarkable “run” took place which, considering the size of the stream, exceeds anything of the kind known either to State or the United States commissioners.
In the twenty-four hours ending Wednesday, November 3, no less that sixty-nine salmon, weighing, on an average, sixteen pounds each, came into the trap. One of them, a male, tipped the scale at twenty seven pounds, and in the depth of body and general appearance is unlike any ever seen in Maine waters.
To say the commissioners are delighted is to put it mild. They declare they will secure 400 fish before the season closes, from which they will secure 1,000,000 eggs. They will be put back into Sebago and must, when grown, furnish rare sport there. Robert Edes of Edes Falls has constructed a hatching house for these eggs and will care for them during the winter.
The poachers were wild with rage when they found what they had long considered their rights interfered with. For years they have gone to the spawning beds both by day and by night, and not only did they kill and mutilated with spears, but did not hesitate to use dynamite cartridges, which they exploded under water. In this way many fish were secured and carried out the State, contrary to the law. Now that the value of the Sebago “fishery” is known, the State will be asked to make such laws as will amply protect it. Maine will also be asked to appropriate the sum of $20,000 annually for the protection of her game, and the cultivation of her fish. There is scarcely a town or village by what is better financially for the cultivation of fish and protection of game, carried on under the wise and long administration of able commissioners.
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1705 Boston Newsletter-"The same night [thirteenth of October], Capt. Lane and his company Returned from Sabegoog Ponds, which lies about 50 miles W.N.W. from Casko, but made no other discovery than a few deserted Wigwaams: This Pond is 20 miles long, and about 7 miles wide, very remarkable for Fishing, where our men were refresh'd with variety of Fish, especially Salmon Trouts, some where of 2 foot long."
1717 Portsmouth From the MacPhaedris diary "in our new plantations about 40 miles from this town" at "Casko.[U]pon ye sea side.... there is more salmon and all manner of fish than in any place in ye World...The River that leads through ye land, where all your Shipping lays......, is full of Salmon, that in ye season you may take 1000 tuns here.
August 22, 1776."The Petition of the Towns of Cape Elizabeth, Windham, Gorham and Pearsontown in the County of Cumberland
Humbly Shew
Towns lay bordering on Presumscutt River for many years after the Settlement of this Eastern Country were plentifully supplied with Salmon, Alewives, Shad & other sorts of Fish which frequented the River in great abundance it being peculiarly suited for the Spawn & increase of Fish by reason of a large pond called Sebago which extends upwards of thirty miles from the river mouth as far as Pondicherry and many river branches that used to bring a plenty of Fish near to many of our doors, your Petitioners show that because of several Mill Dams being built without leaving a sluice way for Fish to pass up, as by Law is directed, has totally obstructed & stopped their course up the River to the great prejudice of many back Towns which depended (in their Inland state) on the River for a part of their support, as also to the prejudice of all the Inhabitants of the Sea Coast near the River mouth by causing a scarcity of Codfish, Haddock, and many kinds of Fish that frequent the mouths of Rivers after a quantity of small bait that abound in such places. And our fishing on the Banks as well as on our Coast off shore is impracticable by reason of the Enemy's cruisers that infest our Coast and reduce the necessity of adopting some method whereby the fish may come to us. August 22, 1776."
This primary source document identifies the migratory species of concern to the Presumpscot's 18th century settlers as Atlantic salmon, Alewives and American shad; attributes the abundance of these migratory fish species in part to their ability to gain access to Sebago Lake and the watershed around it; and stresses the importance of allowing these migratory fish to regain access to the river tributaries in the "back towns" of the Presumpscot, ie. Gorham, Windham and Standish.
1798 -- "An Act for the Preservation of the Fish Called Salmon, Shad & Alewives in the Rivers, Streams & Waters Within the Counties of Lincoln and Cumberland and for Repealing All other Laws Heretofore Made for That Purpose, So Far as Respects Their Operation in the Said Counties."
This law, requires fishways or sluices on, "Any River, streeam, bay, cove, pond or water within the Counties of Lincoln and Cumberland, in, up or through which the fish called Salmon, Shad or Alewives or either of them do have been used and wont to go & pass into the ponds & lakes annually to cast their spawn ..."
US Bureau of Commercial fisheries 1872-73
“About forty years ago fresh-water salmon were caught in great numbers in Sebago lake. The Indians in earlier times speared them in immense quantities in autumn on the shoals below the outlet; the early colonists caught them by the cartload during the spawning period, but the thoughtlessness and carelessness of civilization have reduced then so much in number that they are now quite rare. Still, a few may be take with the minnow as they run up the rivers into the lake, and may then be taken with the fly. Some weighing thirteen and one half pounds have been taken with the minnow. Last summer one was caught of ten pound weight. Others of much greater weight have been speared at night while in the act of spawning. the spear in the hand of the poacher has contributed more than any other cause to the scarcity of this fish. Two years ago two poachers speared in three nights in Songo River more than half a ton of salmon.
1802 -- Dam without passage constructed at head of tide (Presumpscot Falls); large numbers of Atlantic salmon caught below dam while unsuccessfully trying to move upriver (Maine Commissioner of Fisheries, First Report, 1867, p. 105)
....
1875 -- Maine Fisheries Commissioners report, "The first fishway on the Presumpscot was built by the Cumberland Mills, and finished this spring. The plan of the fishway was by Mr. Charles G. Atkins, after a design by Robert G. Pike, Esq. of Middletown, Conn. Of its success, one may judge from the following extract from a letter of our genial friend, Mr. Hammon: 'I had supposed your fishways were intended for fishes in the upper walks of life, such as salmon, trout, &c., &c.; but I find our new fishway is used by the mudsills, the suckers, the chubs, the pouts, even the lampreys. What is to be done about it?' Our reply was, that the 15th Amendment admitted all!
Maine Fisheries Commissioners report, "On the Presumpscot, at its source on Crooked River, a very great number of unusually large fish have been taken by the poachers for the last two or three years. The exceptional size and number of the fish has given increased incitement to the nefarious practice of spearing on the spawning bed. The very remarkable size of the fish and their unwonted number, warrant the conclusion that they are sea salmon planted by us in the head waters of the river at Norway and other tributaries of Sebago in the past years. The first salmon fry were planted in the Presumpscot in 1875. A large fish of 13 pounds was taken below the dam at the outlet of Sebago last June with hook and line. A man named Paul is now under arrest for spearing a fish weighing 24 pounds on Crooked River the middle of October. Several others have been arrested for spearing fish and there are also many other casees which will be prosecuted in due course. We feel warranted in the conclusion that most of these fish are results of our planting sea salmon, not only from the reasons we have assigned above, but from the added fact that we have now a series of eight good fishways on the Presumpscot river from Cumberland Mills to Sebago. .... There has been distributed this season Penobscot salmon fry in different rivers, as follows, viz: Presumpscot River, 140,000." (Fisheries and Game Commissioners' Report, 1882, pp. 10-11)
Fall 1907- In late season at Sebago lake It was no uncommon occurrence to catch a fifteen pound lakd locked salmon and one weighed as much as 22 and one half pounds.- New York Times Nov 8, 1907
page 445 Memoirs of Mrs Inchbald History
In 1825 , one eighth of all tonnage in the United States and one fifth of the tonnage in the United States and one fifth of the tonnage employed in the fisheries were owned by Maine. “
Draft EIS for p-2530 Saco river Projects
USFW has established a goal of a self sustaining Saco river Atlantic Salmon Population of 1,180 adult spawners by the year 2012(USFW 1989) Dependent on adequate fish passage at Cataract by 1991 and Skelton by 2005. 25,000 salmon smolts stocked and 100,000 fry in 1990.
“ A fishing party from Portland Me.,took home, with other smaller fish, last week, a land-locked salmon caught in Sebago Lake that weighed, as they testify, twenty-one and a half pounds, which is said to be the biggest fish of the kind ever taken from that lake. Most of the fish caught there this year are reported to be much larger than usual heretorore.”
New York Times, May 7, 1897
WOOD, FIELD AND STREAM [PDF]
Although he used a shingle for a rod and a pearl wobbler for a lure, extremely unorthodox tackle for the results obtained, an angler on Long Lake in Maine landed a 19-pound-11-ounce landlocked salmon, the heaviest of this species taken since 1907 and the ...View free preview
June 21, 1941 - By RAYMOND R. CAMP - Article
Big Beaver Dam in Maine
-The animals build a structure 250 feet long, Creating an artificial lake.
-Special to the New York Times-
Bangor, Nov. 23- The biggest beaver dam ever seen in Maine is now attracting hundreds of people to Caribou, on the Aristook River. Two miles from the village the beavers have built a dam of logs and mud 250 feet long, turning the river back upon the lowlands for a great distance of three miles, and thus creating a great lake.
Trees a foot in diameter have been cut down by the beaversm the branches trimmed off and the trunks in some mysterious manner brought to the dam and submerged. The dam is better than many on the river that have been built by men and the Caribou people are rather proud of it. Over
1,000 beavers have worked hard on this job for several months and they will be allowed to remain in possession all Winter.
The New York Times-Nov. 24, 1901
April 29, 1938, Friday
Page 26, 692 words
About 500 salmon were taken from the waters of Sebago Lake last week-end, as scores of New England and New York anglers took advantage of the weather to get in their first fishing of the season. [ E
SALMON FROM SEA TO STOCK A LAKE; Maine Hatches 80,000 and Will Try to Cross Them With Fresh Water Variety for Size, Quantity and Gameness
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* Save
December 19, 1926, Sunday
Section: SPECIAL FEATURES AUTOMOBILES SPECIAL FEATURES RADIO SCHOOLS, Page XX8, 744 words
A NOVEL experiment is being tried at Raymond, Me., at one of the State fish hatcheries. Last April 100,000 eggs from salt-water salmon were purchased from the Canadian Bureau of Fisheries, taken to the Maine station and hatched, and about 80,000 have lived.
A fishing party from Portland, Me., took home, with other smaller fish, last week, a land-locked salmon caught in Sebago Lake that weighed , as they testify, twenty-one and a half pounds, and which is said to be the biggest fish of the kind ever taken form that lake. Most of the fish caught there this year are reported to be much larger than usual heretofore. New York Times May 7, 1897
Trout fishermen in Maine are enthusiastic over the season’s prospects. Sebago Lake is practically clear of ice, and on last Friday: the first legal day to catch trout and salmon, unusual weather and water conditions prevailed. The first fish landed was a five-pound salmon by F.L. Shaw of Portland, while the largest fish of the day, a nine-pound salmon, was captured by another Portland angler. New York Times April 5, 1910
Salmon in the Androscoggin
From the Brunswick (Me.) Telegraph, June 24
the New York Times Published June 25, 1881
Two weeks ago a salmon weighing 20 pounds was caught near Bay Bridge, in the Androscoggin, and was sold whole in this market, to our sorrow, as we would give more for one salmon caught in the Kennebec or Androscoggin, and sold without being put on ice, than we would for a dozen fish caught on the St. John and kept on ice several days before being cooked. Nothing deteriorates more quickly, as we think, than salmon kept on ice. Several salmon, we hear, have been seen this Spring below our falls, in the neighborhood of the Dennison Mill, one being taken from the flume a few days since and returned to the river. Perhaps the little fellow, weighing 15 pounds or thereabouts , was in search of the fishway further up stream. The salmon seen last season when the water was very low and in the pools leading to the fishway, and the fish seen this season would seem to indicate that the stream is to be again revisited by adult fish, and the young fry ought to be running, we believe, this year. We hope to see the river at no very distant date supplying us with fish, and at far lower figures than are now paid- from 35 to 50 cent per pound.
The New England Magazine p.359
Fish-- I should say so! It was reported to me on good authority that one man after a week’s fishing brought into Portland one hundred and twenty-five pounds of salmon, the two largest weighting eleven and one quarter and fifteen and one quarter pounds respectively. How this could be true when the Maine law denies any man the right to take away more than twenty-five pounds unless his last caught fish carried him beyond that weight, some one should answer.
Fish-- I should remark! go up to Sandy Beach or White’ Bridge in the fall spawning season, and behold something worth going miles to see. Thousands of big salmon, some of them would tip the beam at better than thirty pounds, some say fifty apiece, lying with noses upstream, well with in your reach, but the whole span of the law interposing, and they rest there in full view, slowly working to hold their position.
Should the Fish and Game Commissioners grant you permission to experiment, drop bait on their noses- they restlessly turn away from it, but should you pass a hook through the tail of a minnow and drop him onto one of those smooth places, you would probably succeed in hooking a salmon,for the male would fretfully seize the intruder by the tail to remove him from his mate;s bed.
On that spawning ground is conclusive proof of the value of the work of the hatchery and the care o f the wardens under direction of the state officers. If you desire further evidence, take note of the tremendous increase in the catch of small salmon-two to six pounds- from year to year.
Eggs are taken from salmon netted in Sebago, and carefully nurtured until they are two years old, large enough to take of themselves, when they are set at liberty in the lake. Last year 236,000 were so planted. That they are able to take care of themselves even against marauding pickerel and bass was satisfactorily demonstrated to my friend Bickford.
He sat on the pier at the lake station one day, and noticed a school of young salmon, two year old, near a big rock. Just in the shadow of the piling a large pickerel was lurking, moving out gradually toward the luscious repast he had in prospect. Were those salmon so tamed in the pen that they feared nothing, as has been claimed? My friend was an interested spectator of nature’s drama-- would it prove to be comedy or tragedy?
Brother Pickerel decides he is in striking distance, and dashes toward the rack, when presto! the salmon scatter. Ever so slightly they had been sideling away from him,watching out of the tails of their eyes until he made his rush, when they seemed to rejoice in their ability to give him the laugh and mock at his hunger. What an object lesson on the wisdom in safeguarding fry a couple of years instead of turning them loose to feed other fish of less royal blood.
Another test. Four years ago when the net was cast to secure salmon for stripping. nine were taken from the pool at Raymond hatchery. Nest year twenty-seven came to hand. The third year one hundred and thirty, and last season the first cast of the net brought in two hundred and forty. At this rate what will protection and proper handling do for Sebago waters in the years to come? Neither a prophet is needed to foretell the rich sport in store for the fisherman ten years from to-day.
p. 9 printed 1901 for the year ending June 30, 1900
Report of the Commissioner -United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries
-In Vermont and New Hampshire large numbers of fish were lost by the drying up of streams which had heretofore never been affected in this manner, and in Maine the water in many of the large lakes became so low that the trout and landlocked salmon were not able to ascend the streams to spawn, which, of course, resulted in a material reduction of the number of eggs collected.
An investigation during the fall of 1899 shows that a large number
of Atlantic Salmon passed over the falls at Bangor and reached the spawning grounds at the headwaters of the Penobscot, and from what was learned it is believed an auxillary station for the collection of eggs of this species may be profitably established and the supply obtained to better advantage than by the methods now followed.
p.36 Craig Brook Station Maine -The large stock of young salmon hatched the previous spring were fed as usual upon chopped food, mainly hog plucks, though the flesh of old horses and other domestic animals formed a very considerable item.
The superintendent visited the upper waters of the Penobscot several times during the year , with the view to determining how many salmon reach the natural spawning grounds, and whether it would be possible to obtain eggs from this source in sufficient number to permit the the discontinuance at Dead Brook. As a result of these investigation it was decided to reduce the scale of operations materially at Dead Brook and to establish an auxiliary station of the east branch of the Penobscot River at Mattagamon, in township 3, range 7 west form the east line of the State, by river about 20 miles above Medway, where the east and west branches unite, about 150 miles
p.37 above Bucksport, and 7 and one half miles from Staceyville, on the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad. The temporary camp and works are located on the west side of the river at the entrance to a cove known as “Hunt Logan” formed by an ancient river bed from which the stream as by natural causes been partially diverted, though the connection between the old bed and new is still maintained.
After careful consideration it was estimated that about 200 salmon had passed over the dams to the upper waters of the Penobscot and spawned the previous summer but the nests are scattered over about 50 miles of stream, and unless the fish can be captured and held at one point it would be impossible to collect any considerable number of eggs. It was therefore necessary to select a site where all the fish ascending the stream could be captured and held until September or October, and for this reason “Hunt Logan” was selected. ( The commissioner describes the engineering of the weir-RW.)
Much of the present report is taken up with the work of the Commissioners in bringing the owners of the Holyoke Water Co. to realize the fact the fishes have a legal as well as natural right to a free passage in our rivers, and the Supreme court having decided in favor of the fishes we trust that this case will settle all opposition to fish ways, which, as the commissioners state, the owners of dams are fast discovering, practically take little or nothing from their water power. p.413 The American Naturalistby Essex Institute march 1871
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FISH STORIES FROM MAINE
SALMON, SMELTS, AND HERRING IN ABUNDANCE--THE MAINE SARDINE
March 30, 1890
Bangor, Me. March 29- The Penobscot River at Bangor, from which 200,000 tons of ice will be taken in barges and vessels to New York the coming Summer , but has always been noted for its fishing, and in the long ago, when salmon, sturgeon, shad, herring, trout, pickerel, and smelts ran in it, the British came here and fought for control of the fishing privileges as well as for the oak timber which grew upon its banks to be used at the royal navy yard at Halifax. They gained a victory, but before they secured it they sunk a fleet of twenty one American vessels, leaving at the bottom of the river some 120 cannon, many of which have been taken out since by United States dredging machines. For years after the slaughter of fish was terrible, and there are farms upon the river banks of wonderful fertility, made so by thousands of pounds of shad and herring thrown out from the smaller brooks and streams into which they crowded by means of pitchforks, and afterward spread as fertilizers.
It is a fact, and the times and places have described in the ancient local press, that in many instances shad and herring have run in these streams in such numbers when in search of spawning grounds as to fill them from bank to bank, the rear schools actually forcing the advance guard, which was stopped by a dam high and dry upon the shore. Salmon were in such abundance that when boys were ‘bound out” the articles of apprenticeship stipulated that they should not be obliged to eat of it more than twice a week..Along the shores then, and as late as twenty five years ago, lobsters from six to fifteen pounds were in abundance, and at that time live lobsters were sold at wholesale at 3 cents each, regardless of size.
Each season, too the tinkers, as young mackerel were called, swarmed in every bay, and so numerous and hungry were they that bait was not needed to catch them, only a jig,- a hook with lead at the end next the line- which glistened in the water. Then the fishermen ground up a porgy or two and and , seeking the open bay , threw this “throw bait” out, the oil spreading and quickly attracting schools of tinkers. then, as rapidly as the hands and eyes could work, the line, only about 8 feet long would be cast and hauled, never waiting to ‘”feel a bite”, for often the fish would catch the glittering hook in midair.
The porgy was hardly eatable, but for years it was an important factor in commerce. the oil was for a long time the basis of all prepared paint, and in the collecting of it hundreds of men were in engaged. The fish would not take bait but as they swarmed in schools they were caught in seines. With the porgy and the tinker came the big horse mackerel, often as large as the body of the horse, and which subsisted on the smaller fish. As he could make havoc with a seine whenever he came in contact with one a sharp lookout was kept for him, and when a tin was seen on the placid water, boatmen armed with harpoon and line set out for him.
But porgies, tinkers horse mackerel, and rotund lobsters have had their day along the coast of Maine, and the present generation content themselves with salmon , sea mackerel caught all along the coast from Sandy Hook to the Banks or Newfoundland; smelts, and young herring- the latter, when done up in tin boxes and given a French name, passing in the marts of trade as sardines. The latter fish furnishes employment to thousands of people and returns a big revenue to the State, and for this has been called the “king of the Sea,” but he plays the same part in the economy of nature there as does the rabbit in the forest- both are food of all their neighbors.
The real king of the bays of Maine and the lower courses of the rivers is the smelt. He is present in greater numbers than all other fish combined.
In size he ranges from three to ten inches in length , and of the medium ones ten or twelve will weigh a pound. Eight months in the year he is game for fishermen, being taken in every known way of fishing, save by spearing. As soon as the frost of October set in he can be caught with hook and line or by means of the wire rig. This consist of a ten inch piece of wire suspended by the line, attached at the middle with two and sometimes three hooks made fast by means of stout thread four inches long. Small minnows make good bait, but the smelt will eagerly snap at the throat of a brother and goes with a rush for the hook having on it the eye of some other smelt.
Then there is smelt fishing through the ice, the men actually sitting in their own houses as they do this. With matched boards a house 6 feet by 4 feet is made and set upon the ice, in one end being a stove. Inside, a hole 5 feet long and one foot wide is cut through the ice, and the bait in this season consists of the clam worm, a sort of ear wig fellow in shape and color, but often longer than the smelt who undertakes to eat it. When the fish are biting, times are lively.
Salmon coming in from the sea and swimming for the spawning beds do not sea, but in going back they take their fill of smelts. So do the coast seals, and small fry of the smelt is food for the small shad fry. In fresh water land-locked salmon cannot thrive unless the young have the spawn of the smelt on which to live, and success met with in stocking the ponds and lakes of Maine is due first to the fact that smelt food is abundant there.
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“One place that managed to avoid many of the hardships that plagued the other fisheries in southern Maine was Sebago Lake. Sebago is one of the four original homes of landlocked salmon in Maine and historically was known as a lake that produced very large fish. The first written account of a Sebago salmon is in the 1825 diary of novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne who wrote, “On the way home from Frye’s Island, Mr. Ring caught a black-spotted trout that was almost a whale. It weighed, before it was cut open, eighteen and one-half pounds.” Another account from a few years later states, “Acres of water were boiling with smelts and salmon but a boat’s length away, and very ordinary and everyday fishermen were reeling in from twelve to eighteen pound fish.” Salmon up to 20 pounds continued to be taken from Sebago through the early 1900’s. But by 1950, the size of the average fish had dropped to below 4 pounds.”
http://maineoutdoors.com/fishing/southcoast.html
(Fishways are dangerous and should be outlawed-Roger)
Thrown from a boat and drowned
Des Moines, may 17
A tinner named Newport and a barkeeper named Alexander Stavast, while in a boat above the milldam this afternoon, undertook to go down the fishway. The boat remained upright, but both men fell out and were drowned. Newport’s body has been recovered, but not that of Starvast. A waterman saw them fall, but was too far off to save them. It is thought the men had been drinking.
New York times May 18, 1885
FISHING in CONNECTICUTT
The Speedy Extermination of the Shad threatened
New Haven, JAN. 16-
The State Fish Commissioners express the opinion that the present modes of fishing in the Connecticutt River are so destructive as to threaten the speedy extermination of shad, and in their annual report they call upon the legislature to investigate the matter of the pollution of the rivers and streams of the State by refuse matter from mill and factories. It seems to the commission that the fish do not find enough to thrive on in the contaminated water, or become diseased and die off. In the case of shad artificial propagadation partly meets the difficulty, but it can not take the place of suitable natural conditions of the fish.
The Commissioners review with regret the temporary failure to secure a permanent restoration of the salmon to his old haunts in the State. In 1874 New-Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticutt combined together and placed in tributaries of the upper Connecticutt about 1,000,000 young salmon. The fact that four years are required for a young salmon to attain maturity led the Commissioneers to expect that in 1878 a considerable number of fair sized salmon would enter the Connecticutt after their annual trips to salt water, and during the three
following 1874 frequent reporrs were received of the appearance of the young fish in different parts of the river. In 1878, as was anticipated, the young salmon appeared in considerable numbers, averaging about 15 pounds each. They were in fine condition and readily brought $1 per pound in the New-York markets. Efforts had been made to procure such legislation as would protect them at a previous sessioon fo the general Assembly, but owing to the utter incredulity of the members this was found to be impossible. The natural result was that, being a very large and valuable fish, nearly all that entered the river were taken. A few succeeded in making their way up to the foot of Holyoke Dam, but were stopped by this impassable barrier. The result has been the disappearance of the salmon, never to return until a practical fishway shall be erected at the Holyoke Dam.
New York Times January 18, 1884
Salmon in The Androscoggin
from the Brunswick(Me)Telegraph, June 24
Two weeks ago a salmon weighing 20 pounds was caught near Bay Bridge, in the Androscoggin, and was sold whole in this market, to our sorrow, as we would give more for one salmon caught in the Kennebec or Androscoggin, and sold without being put on ice, than we would for a dozen fish caught on the St. John and kept on ice several days before being cooked. Nothing deteriorates more quickly as we think , than salmon kept on ice. Several salmon we hear , have been seen this Spring below our falls, in the neighborhood of the Dennison Mill, one being taken from the flume a few days since and returned to the river. Perhaps the little fellow, wighing 15 pounds or thereabouts was in search of the fishway furhter upstream. The salmon seen last season when the water was very low and in the pools leading to the fishway, and fish seen this season would seem to indicate that the stream is to be again revisited by adult fish, and the young fry ought to be running, we believe this year. We hope to see the river at no very distant date supplying us with fish, and at far lower figures than are now paid-- form 35 to 50 cents per pound.
New York Times June 25, 1881
Fish Culture in Maine
Augusta Dispatch to the Boston Journal
The Fish Commissioners are doing a splendid work this season, and one which cannot fall to bear good fruits on maintaining and increasing the fisheries of Maine. All the hatcheries are employed at their fullest capacity in producing young fish with which to stock the streams, rivers and lakes. At the present time they have 200,000 sea salmon in the process of hatching or in the “yolk” state at the Weld Hatchery, which are to be liberated in the Androscoggin and Kennebec Rivers. At Endfield are 400,000 more, destined for the Penobscot, and at Grand Lake stream are 200,000 for the St Croix River. At the Edes Falls Hatchery 400,000 land-locked salmon are in process of hatching, all of which will be liberated in various lakes and ponds throughtout the State. There are 100,000 young salmon at Orland Hatchery, which is the property of the State. Fish Commissioner Stillwell says there is no insurmountable reason why the Kennebec River should not swarm with salmon as the Penobscot and if suitable fishways were provided at the dams so that the fish would meet with no hindrances in their migrations, it would be a salmon river, whereas now this king of fish is seldom taken in these waters.
The New York Times April 30, 1889
Salmon Fishing in Maine
Many Fine Fish Caught in the Penobscot River this Season
Bangor, Me. May 25- The State Fish Commissioners here always claimed that Penobscot Salmon would take the fly providing the river was kept clear of sawdust and opportunities for breeding allowed. In years gone by
a few have been caught, but until last season no good catches were made, 50 being aken then.This year long before sa;mon werer expected they began to rise to the flym and during this month about 150 have been landed. They are taken within the city limits, below the dam where the river is less than half a mile in width. , and where the banks are clear. The average weght is 18 pounds, smallest 10 pounds. largest 25 . Fishingin swit water from boats at anchor is the usual methos, but many good fish have been taken by casting from the shore. Saturday last State Fish Commisssioner Stanley hooked a 25 pound fish and was four hours in landing him. At the same time and near the same place another fish took the fly, made a short run, and leaped out of the water, falling into the boat near by. Many are lost, as nearly all the fishermen are new at the business.
All experts who have come here have been successful . Mr Frederick Ayer, a merchant here, an expert salmon fishermen, has caught 20, the total weight of the lot being nearly 400 pounds. The Rev. Newman Smyth, of New-Haven, has caught 6; Mr. Mitchell, Norwich,Conn., caught severalm and many other New-England andCanadian fishermen have had good success. They all say nothing like it is to be found in American or Canadian waters. The season is early, the best times in recent years for salmon catching in weirs having been in July. Salmon haveputin an appearance at various points up the river, also in the St Croix, the boundary line between Miane and New-Brunswick, and are taking the fly there. Nothing but the floating sawdust thrown in the river in violation
of law can prevent fine fishing in both rivers. The excitement here is intense, and every means will be taken to keep the river pure. Boats and fishing gear are plenty, and hotel accomodations ample.
New York Times May 26, 1886
Maine Fisheries and Game
Facts of Interesst in the Report of the State Game Commissioners
Bangor, Me.Dec 13- From advance sheets of the report of the Commissioner of Fisheries and Game for this year it is learned that the Pine Tree State is now the best hunting ground for moose, deer, and caribou to be found in the Union, and that the work of fish culture has resulted in making the Penobscot River the greatest salmon river for fly fishing in America. It speaks if the great unlawful slaughter of big game, and is very severe upon wealthy poachers from other States, one of whom killed in close season and left to rot in the woods a cow moose, and left also her two calves, which starved to death. When arrestedhe had still another moose in his possession and was fined $100. Two cases are cited where poachers killed brother poachers by shooting them by mistake, and the Commissioners call upon the courts to indict them for manslaughter.
Again the report says:
“A case reported to me as occurring at Seven Ponds involved two boats loaded with Massachusetts poachers and Maine guides, shining deer in early Summer, when most;y nursing does are killed. One of the boats mistaking the other for game delivered their fire. The passengers and guides were not so well peppered as we could have wished. It is of comparatively recent date as to years since a party of ministers of the Gospel were hunting moose in midsummer when one , the youngest, and probably the one misled accidently shot himself.”
The report pays respects to the skin hunters, pot hunters,
poachers who spear salmon and practice netting and the use of dynamite in rivers werhe fish abound, and also calls the attention of the Legislature to the need of protecting game wardens who are apt to have their cattle
poisoned or buildings burned when they enforce the laws.”Give us”, it says” a square non exportation law for our fish and game, for such has got to be the speculative mania of the day, game dealers of Massachusetts and New York, that force enough can be put into our forests under our game laws to sweep off every head of game in one season, if exportation is ever legalized.
New York Times December 14, 1888
State of Maine, Department of Fisheries
Bangor, August 25, 1879 Extracts
p.272
Dear Professor*** We have had a grat run of salmon this year, and consisting largely of fish planted by us in the Penobscot four or five years ago, so far as we could judge; there were a very large number running from 9 to 12 pounds. The east and west branches of the Penobscot report a great many fish in the river. On the Mattawaumkeag, where we put in 250,000 and upwards, in 1875 and 1876, agreat many salmon are reported trying to get over the lower dam at Gordon’s Falls, 13 feet high. These fish were put in at Bancroft, Eaton, and Kingman , on the European and Norht American Railroad. The dam at Kingman is 13 feet high; at Slewgundy, 14 feet, at Gordon’s Falls, 13 feet and yet a salmon has been hooked on a trout fly at Bancroft, and salmon are seen in the river at Kingman, and between the dams at Slewgundy and Gordon’s Falls.***
The dealers in our city have retailed this season 50 tons Penobscot salmon,and about 3 tons Saint Johns; it all sells as Penobscot salmon
Saint John salmon costs here duty and all included, about 14 cents a pound and so down to 12 and one half cents the last of the season. Salmon at Bucksport has sold to dealers here at 8 cents. Two tons taken at Bucksport and Orland in 24 hours. Average price at retail here for whole season, 25 cents.
Yours truly E. M. Stillwell
check 274p.274
p.273
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Size of trees recorded in colonial times
1770 Dartmouth College 270 white Pine butt to top
1817 Lancaster, New Hampshire white pine 264 feet
1736 Dunstable white pine tall and strait 7 feet 8 inches in diameter at butt end.
statistics from Fishing in New Hampshire by Jack Noon p.21
There was a direct relationship between the size of the trees and the amount of nutreints which were brought from the ocean to inland waters.
p.22 A study of Alaskan salmon on the Kenai Peninsula trace a “stable isotope signature” of nitrogen from the spawning salmon. The study found the isotope showed up in the needles of white spruce in a manner “inversely proportionately to the distance from the salmon spawning streams” and correlated this with radio ollared bears. -- the delivery system.
The relevance of this study to new Hampshire, without brown bears, lies in the principle. All anadromous fish that died inland during spawning season added their ocean accumulated nutrients to the ecosystem. generally speaking, predation would have been needed in the cases of salmon, shad, sturgeon , and alewives- all of which attempted to return to the sea after spawning. All the lampreys , however, added their decomposing carcasses to the nutrient cycling process. Some of them ranged well inland. For example, my crutch of authority, the 1924 Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Fisheries. , proclaims,” In olden times lampreys entered the Merrimac River in extraordiary numbers...[and went] far upstream, even to the headwaters.” 36
Prey animals would have dined heavily on this smorgasborg from the sea and these nutirents would have been distributed over the landscape. The quantities of fish biomass is not easily attained but from a number of reports a rough idea is reachable.
In addition the density of the virgin forest canopy kept the forest floor virtually moist in all seasons and yet retained nutrients for slow constant release to the soil substrate. An eel like a lamprey has about 4 times the protein value as other fishes. It is widely known that fish scales are one of the best fertilizers.
What economic value is lost by the destruction of our fisheries.
The lumber industty provides a great source of revenue for Maine. and not only in the value of the log but in value of the resulting manufactured products from that resource. Perhaps tree growth capapbility because of the nutrients sources from the ocean was nearly double before the times of dams and overfishing. One natural resource benfitted the other. The virgin forests provided clear cool streams and rivers for spawning along with inland sources of food genrated by the forest habitat.
Healthy fisheries with accessible rivers and lakes if properly protected would be of great value as a healthy food source as well as providing employment for thousands.
A recreational fishery would bring millions of dollars into the State. It would have positive domino effect on the entire ecosystem and water quality. The many smaller benefits would combine to be of significant economic impact. No other watershed could so easily be restored as the Presumpscot River Sebago Lake watershed. Dams should be removed with quality fishe ladders on any remoaniong dams left. Because of the uniformityof lfow in the Presumpscot and it short run to an unusually large cold deep lake with vast sany shoals for spawning and a large sandy tribuary river perfect for spawning fish. The connection of Sebago lake to a large inland forest almost to the New Hampshire border makes is the best possible conditions for a superalive anadramous fishery.
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-New York Times, October 14, 1891
Salmon in the Hudson- It appears that they are multiplying rapidly. Statements to that Effect in the Report of the Fish Commission-Trout Succumbing to Pickerel in Adirondack Waters.
The October meeting of the Fish Commissioners of this State was held yesterday, President Eugene G. Blackford occupied the chair, and the other Commissioners present were L.D.. Huntington of New Rochelle and Henry Burden of Troy. President Blackford announced that he had received reports that the waters of the Upper and Lower Saranac and Meacham Lake had become infested with pickerel which were killing off lake trout. In the Saranac Lakes, he said, pickerel weighing as much as nine pounds each had been taken, and recently a lake trout weighing one and half pounds had been found floating upon the surface of one of these lakes, dying from the bite of a pickerel.
As it had been generally found impracticable to exterminate pickerel after they had once got a start ., Mr. Blackford said that it would be useless to put any more trout into these lakes.
There was a strong feeling among the residents of the locality, he said, in favor of stocking the lakes with black bass in order to have some fishing left after the trout had been cleaned out., but as there was a law against putting into waters of the Adirondacks any fish not indigenous thereto, black bass could not be put onto these lakes until some modification of the existing law was secured.
A communication from Henry Loftie of Syracuse offering the ground and buildings for the establishment of a hatchery of wall-eyed pike for Oneida Lake, if the commission will run it, was referred to the President and the Commissioner Burden with power to act.
The annual report of the commission, which has been completed since the last meeting, was read and approved. The Commissioners ask for $34,000 for general expenses and $ $4,000 for clerk hire and office expenses during the coming year. The demand for fry is constantly increasing, and the work of hatching food fishes of both varieties, salt and fresh water, has been extended. The Commissioners are pleased to report that their work is each year being better appreciated and that public sentiment is growing in their favor. This state of feeling they regard as due chiefly to the improved fishing that has resulted from their labors in all parts of the State.
Concerning the growth of salmon in the Hudson River they say:
“ There have been received again this year numerous reports concerning the presence of salmon in the Hudson River, and but for the strictness of the Game Protectors’ watch of the fishermen along the river numbers of this fish would have been taken and marketed. There is no doubt that the work of the commission in stocking the Hudson with salmon has been successful and that each year salmon in increasing numbers will be found in this river. The dams built by the commission have worked well and salmon can now reach their natural spawning beds in the headwaters of the Hudson.
“ It is impossible to get any statistics of the number of salmon taken this Summer in the Hudson River, as there is a law against taking them in nets. The shad fishermen when he secures a salmon would rather sell it for $5 to $10 to someone he can trust to keep it quiet than to return the fish to the water. Consequently, no record is available. We have seen by the newspaper news of some that were taken at Hudson, also below the Troy dam. In each case the reports were sure to mention that the fish were returned to the water, which we very much in doubt.
“Resident of Mechanicsville and Lansingburg report finding a number of dead salmon weighing from ten to twenty pounds, and in each case they had a long gash on the side, which was evidently what killed them. Ever since the salmon were planted in the Hudson numbers of dead ones, badly bruised, have been found each summer. There has not been any spearing going on that we can hear of; besides, the laceration does not have the appearance as if done by a spear, so we thought it might be caused by the water wheels at the mills but after investigating the way the wheels are set and the speed they run, have come to the conclusion that the injury has not been done there. The only explanation we can give that would account for the injury to these fish is that in swimming the Troy dam they have come in contact with the numerous spikes that are sticking up six inches to a foot above the apron. The fishway in this dam has not been in working order since the freshet shortly after it was built, so the salmon have swum this dam when there was not sufficient water passing over it.
“Most of these spikes are placed at the crest of the dam by the Water Power Company to hold back the anchor ice in the Winter and cause the pond to freeze over quicker, so that the floating ice will not trouble their wheels. The salmon are obliged to swim with great speed to stem the current on the apron and some have no doubt come in contact with these spikes. The two Rogers fishways built last fall at Mechanicsville and Northumberland on the Hudson enabled the salmon this Summer to get above the former place for the first time, and as evidence that that they have worked well through and that salmon and other fish have passed up through them, we quote rom a recent letter on the subject from Mr. A. N. Cheny of Glens Falls:
“ A large number of salmon were seen in a pool just below the Stillwater Dam the last of June. When the Fort Edward Dam was taken out I concluded the salmon would run up to Baker’s Falls, and it was not long before I learned that some salmon had been killed just below the falls. While I have not yet seen the man that killed the fish, he has rehearsed the killing to a man I asked to investigate for me. Three salmon were killed and four larger fish were hooked and played, and lost. How they were captured I do not yet know, but it is said
by fair fishing. The dam at Fort Edward is now rebuilt ,and , of course, it stops the salmon, until a fishway is put in. The man who killed the salmon says the pool below the falls was filled with salmon, and from his statement there must have been hundreds in the pond.
“ All the salmon eggs received in our own State have been given us by the United States Fish Commission from their station at Bucksport, Me.. They as well as ourselves, were much disappointed last Fall that they could not procure eggs enough to spare us many. However, the Commissioner, Col. MacDonald kindly supplied the deficiency by ordering one of their cars to bring us for the Hudson some 20,000 salmon, , six months old from 2 and one half to 3 and one half inches long. These young fish it was intended to plant in some of the trout streams that flow into the Hudson just south of Fort Edward on the West Shore. They had poor luck in transporting these fish and as they were fast dying in the car it was deemed best to plant the remainder about 10,000 in the Hudson above the Troy dam which was accordingly done.
“ A fishway should be built in the Fort Edward Dam and the same means provided for getting the fish around the natural obstruction at Baker’s Falls,Glens falls, and Palmer Falls: then they would have a clear passage to the Adirondack sources of the the Hudson. Artificial culture may help in restocking a river, but a fishway can accomplish more by assisting nature to help herself.
“ The result of opening dams with good fishways without any aid from the hatcheries is shown in the case of the St. Crook River, forming the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick. The river had been closed up for many years by impassable dams, and in consequence all anadromous fish were about run out from the river. From three to five years after the building of the fishways the catch of salmon increased from nothing up to 6,000 pounds and alewives from 50 up to 600 barrels per season. The same beneficial results were obtained after building fishways on the Medway and Clyde River in Nova Scotia.”
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-New York Times, October 14, 1891
Salmon in the Hudson- It appears that they are multiplying rapidly. Statements to that Effect in the Report of the Fish Commission-Trout Succumbing to Pickerel in Adirondack Waters.
The October meeting of the Fish Commissioners of this State was held yesterday, President Eugene G. Blackford occupied the chair, and the other Commissioners present were L.D.. Huntington of New Rochelle and Henry Burden of Troy. President Blackford announced that he had received reports that the waters of the Upper and Lower Saranac and Meacham Lake had become infested with pickerel which were killing off lake trout. In the Saranac Lakes, he said, pickerel weighing as much as nine pounds each had been taken, and recently a lake trout weighing one and half pounds had been found floating upon the surface of one of these lakes, dying from the bite of a pickerel.
As it had been generally found impracticable to exterminate pickerel after they had once got a start ., Mr. Blackford said that it would be useless to put any more trout into these lakes.
There was a strong feeling among the residents of the locality, he said, in favor of stocking the lakes with black bass in order to have some fishing left after the trout had been cleaned out., but as there was a law against putting into waters of the Adirondacks any fish not indigenous thereto, black bass could not be put onto these lakes until some modification of the existing law was secured.
A communication from Henry Loftie of Syracuse offering the ground and buildings for the establishment of a hatchery of wall-eyed pike for Oneida Lake, if the commission will run it, was referred to the President and the Commissioner Burden with power to act.
The annual report of the commission, which has been completed since the last meeting, was read and approved. The Commissioners ask for $34,000 for general expenses and $ $4,000 for clerk hire and office expenses during the coming year. The demand for fry is constantly increasing, and the work of hatching food fishes of both varieties, salt and fresh water, has been extended. The Commissioners are pleased to report that their work is each year being better appreciated and that public sentiment is growing in their favor. This state of feeling they regard as due chiefly to the improved fishing that has resulted from their labors in all parts of the State.
Concerning the growth of salmon in the Hudson River they say:
“ There have been received again this year numerous reports concerning the presence of salmon in the Hudson River, and but for the strictness of the Game Protectors’ watch of the fishermen along the river numbers of this fish would have been taken and marketed. There is no doubt that the work of the commission in stocking the Hudson with salmon has been successful and that each year salmon in increasing numbers will be found in this river. The dams built by the commission have worked well and salmon can now reach their natural spawning beds in the headwaters of the Hudson.
“ It is impossible to get any statistics of the number of salmon taken this Summer in the Hudson River, as there is a law against taking them in nets. The shad fishermen when he secures a salmon would rather sell it for $5 to $10 to someone he can trust to keep it quiet than to return the fish to the water. Consequently, no record is available. We have seen by the newspaper news of some that were taken at Hudson, also below the Troy dam. In each case the reports were sure to mention that the fish were returned to the water, which we very much in doubt.
“Resident of Mechanicsville and Lansingburg report finding a number of dead salmon weighing from ten to twenty pounds, and in each case they had a long gash on the side, which was evidently what killed them. Ever since the salmon were planted in the Hudson numbers of dead ones, badly bruised, have been found each summer. There has not been any spearing going on that we can hear of; besides, the laceration does not have the appearance as if done by a spear, so we thought it might be caused by the water wheels at the mills but after investigating the way the wheels are set and the speed they run, have come to the conclusion that the injury has not been done there. The only explanation we can give that would account for the injury to these fish is that in swimming the Troy dam they have come in contact with the numerous spikes that are sticking up six inches to a foot above the apron. The fishway in this dam has not been in working order since the freshet shortly after it was built, so the salmon have swum this dam when there was not sufficient water passing over it.
“Most of these spikes are placed at the crest of the dam by the Water Power Company to hold back the anchor ice in the Winter and cause the pond to freeze over quicker, so that the floating ice will not trouble their wheels. The salmon are obliged to swim with great speed to stem the current on the apron and some have no doubt come in contact with these spikes. The two Rogers fishways built last fall at Mechanicsville and Northumberland on the Hudson enabled the salmon this Summer to get above the former place for the first time, and as evidence that that they have worked well through and that salmon and other fish have passed up through them, we quote rom a recent letter on the subject from Mr. A. N. Cheny of Glens Falls:
“ A large number of salmon were seen in a pool just below the Stillwater Dam the last of June. When the Fort Edward Dam was taken out I concluded the salmon would run up to Baker’s Falls, and it was not long before I learned that some salmon had been killed just below the falls. While I have not yet seen the man that killed the fish, he has rehearsed the killing to a man I asked to investigate for me. Three salmon were killed and four larger fish were hooked and played, and lost. How they were captured I do not yet know, but it is said
by fair fishing. The dam at Fort Edward is now rebuilt ,and , of course, it stops the salmon, until a fishway is put in. The man who killed the salmon says the pool below the falls was filled with salmon, and from his statement there must have been hundreds in the pond.
“ All the salmon eggs received in our own State have been given us by the United States Fish Commission from their station at Bucksport, Me.. They as well as ourselves, were much disappointed last Fall that they could not procure eggs enough to spare us many. However, the Commissioner, Col. MacDonald kindly supplied the deficiency by ordering one of their cars to bring us for the Hudson some 20,000 salmon, , six months old from 2 and one half to 3 and one half inches long. These young fish it was intended to plant in some of the trout streams that flow into the Hudson just south of Fort Edward on the West Shore. They had poor luck in transporting these fish and as they were fast dying in the car it was deemed best to plant the remainder about 10,000 in the Hudson above the Troy dam which was accordingly done.
“ A fishway should be built in the Fort Edward Dam and the same means provided for getting the fish around the natural obstruction at Baker’s Falls,Glens falls, and Palmer Falls: then they would have a clear passage to the Adirondack sources of the the Hudson. Artificial culture may help in restocking a river, but a fishway can accomplish more by assisting nature to help herself.
“ The result of opening dams with good fishways without any aid from the hatcheries is shown in the case of the St. Crook River, forming the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick. The river had been closed up for many years by impassable dams, and in consequence all anadromous fish were about run out from the river. From three to five years after the building of the fishways the catch of salmon increased from nothing up to 6,000 pounds and alewives from 50 up to 600 barrels per season. The same beneficial results were obtained after building fishways on the Medway and Clyde River in Nova Scotia.”
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NO KENNEBEC SALMON NOWADAYS
From the Boston Journal
New York Times April 25, 1892
It is the almost invariable custom when fresh salmon are in the market to place on the hotel and restaurant bills of are “Kennebec River Salmon” The oldest inhabitant cannot recall the day when a salmon was taken in the Kennebec.
SALMON SEASON OPENS TO-DAY
Anglers Expect Great Catches in the Famous Bangor Pool of the Penobscot
Special to the New York Times
Bangor, March 31, 1900- The salmon fishing season at the famous pool in the Penobscot River, a mile above Bangor City Hall, will open to-morrow, and soon the big pink fishes will be displayed on the market slabs here and receive honorable mention in the dinner bills of New York and Boston Hotels.
The river is still frozen over for miles below Bangor, but there is a large open space at the pool where the salmon are caught, and sportsmen predict that there will be a good run of fish at the start. The open time for salmon is from April 1 to July 15 and in that period many thousands will be taken from the Penobscot, either by the fly or in the weirs and nets down the river and bay. At Bangor pool all salmon are taken with the fly, and it is here that the enthusiastic anglers from all over the United States gather every Spring to try their skill.
The Penobscot is by far the best sea salmon river on the Atlantic Coast, and the bulk of the supply for the Eastern markets in the country is taken in the weirs below this city. All along the river the salmon finds its way, and may be seen sporting in the rapids hundreds of miles above Bangor or resting in the shady pools in quiet stretches of the far-away West Branch.
Fly fishing at Bangor Pool has been a great sport since 1885, when Thomas Allen, a Warden, found that the salmon would rise to the fly. Anglers of note from Europe, come here every Spring to cast for the big fellows, and while they usually have good luck, they long for a return of the days descried by the old settlers when both salmon and shad were so plentiful that shiploads of them were sent, in pickled form, to the West Indies and South America, and when they were used even as a fertilizer in potato fields. It was common saying on the river then that vessel had a cargo of “salmon and shingles out , rum and molasses back”, on a voyage to the West Indies.
The luckiest fisherman or the most skilled in the history of Bangor salmon pool is Fred W. Ayer, the Bangor lumberman who has caught with the fly 500 pounds of salmon in a single season. The total catch with the fly at this pool ranges from 6,000 to 9,000 pounds in a season,
the weights ranging from 10 to 30 pounds, 16 pounds being about the average. The first fish of the season, if it gets to market,
brings about $1.25 a pound., and quickly at that, for there is always a rivalry between the hotels to get the first Penobscot salmon.
The first fish is usually taken on the first day of the season, and last year the man who caught the first salmon sold it immediately for $21.25, while for the entire season his catch was worth over $500. The season’s first salmon usually goes to some New York or Boston Hotel, or to the President of the United States. Fish sent to distant parts of the country are packed in boxes filled with moss, sawdust, and cracked ice, and in this way they have been transported thousands of miles. After the first week or two the price in Bangor market falls to 75 cents a pound, then to 50,and when the weirs begin to send in their supply the best cuts can be bought here at retail for 15 to 20 cents a pound. Bangor people care little for salmon, but the silver-sided beauties are always in demand in the big cities. It is curious to note that on the dinner bills of New York hotels “Kennebec salmon” are featured. There is no such thing as a Kennebec salmon, any more that there is a Moosehead mackerel. The salmon so referred to come from the Penobscot.
Among the famous fishermen who come to Bangor in Springtime to try their luck with the salmon fly are Archibald Mitchell of Norwich, Conn.; Judge Porter and Lawyer Briscoe of the same city, the Rev. Newman Smyth of New Haven, and a dozen more sportsmen from New York City. Charles Burnette of Glasgow, Scotland, has been a frequent visitor, and in the course of a season a good many notable people from various sections of the Untied States join the anglers at the famous pool.
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History of Gorham
cirxa 1792
p.268
“ Trout at this time were abundant in the river. Nicholas harding,son of Zephaniah, when a young man lived from his fourteenth to his twenty first year at the Falls, cutting timber and sawing in the mill, and taking care of the mill much of the time. He said they considered a hook and line as much a part of of thier fit out as they did an axe, and that often he would stand in the mill and catch a dozen trout of ssuch size that they ould be quited a load for him to take to the house. - Hugh McLeelan and Katherine b. Lewis
American Fisheries
NEW ENGLAND FISHING GROUNDS.-SERIOUS DECREASE IN THE FISH SUPPLY-ITS CAUSES AND THE
MEASURES FOR RELIEF
The coast, lake, and river fisheries of the United States are a subject of the greatest importnace to the general interests of the country. They furnish a large proportion of our food supply, they contribute to the State and national revenues, and they provide profitable employment to great numbers of men and boys, beside serving as a stimulus to ship-building, as well as providing an admirable school for the training of seamen for the merchant and naval services of the country. ........
New York Times -May 21, 1874
Conservation by States
From the Address by President Roosevelt
Opening the Conference of Governors at Washington,May 10,1908
On March 10, 1908, the Supreme Court of Maine rendered an exceedingly important judicial decison, this opinion was rendered in response to questions as to the right of the Legislature tp restrict the cutting of trees on private land for the prevention of droughts and floods, the preservation of the natural water supply, and the prevention of the erosion of such lands, and the consequent filling up of rivers, ponds, and lakes. The forests and water power of Maine constitute the larger part of her wealth and form the basis of her industrial life, and the question submitted by the Maine Senate to the Supreme Court and the answer of the Supreme Court alike bear testimony to the wisdom of the people of Maine, and clearly define a policy of conservation of natural resources, the adoption of natural resources, the adoption of which is of vital importance not merely to Maine, but to the whole country.
Such a policy will preserve soil, forests, water power as a heritage for the children and children’s children of the men and women of this generation; for any enactment that provides for the wise utilization of the forests, whether in public or private ownership, and for the conservation of the water resources fo the country, must necessarily be legislation that will promote both private and public welafare; for flood prevention, water -power development, preservation of the soil, and improvement of navigable rivers are all promoted by such a policy of forest conservation.
The New York Times Jan 26, 1910
Wheeler comment- The references to water power are the hints of the elimination of fishways.
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Putnam’s Monthly ,A Magazine of Literature, Science and Art.
Vol VI.—July,1855. –NO. XXXI
p.149
THE RIVER FISHERIES OF NORTH AMERICA
On the first discovery of the northern coasts of North America, whether of Greenland, Labrador, the present British Provinces, or the United States, nothing, in the first instance, so much attracted the admiration of the discoverers as the immense profusion of animal life which teemed in all the littoral waters, the shoal places of the ocean itself, the estuaries, the river courses, and as they were subsequently and successively discovered, the interior streams and inland lakes of the virgin continent.
The Norsemen, who, beyond doubt, were the first visitors of America, at least since the Christian era, spoke with scarce less enthusiasm of the shoals of salmon- a fish with which they were well acquainted, as swarming on their own wild Norwegian fiords and rivers- than of the grapes and maize of Vinland-fruits of the earth which, denied to the rigors of their native climate, they had not yet learned to know and value, by their inroads on the sunny shores of southern France, and the vintage-laden soil of Italy and Sicilian islands.
With two years after Sebastian Cabot’s discovery of Newfoundland, in the year 1500, sea-fisheries were established on the coast and banks of that island; and these fisheries ”formed the first link between Europe and North America, and for a century almost the only one.” *( Hildreth’s History. U.S.vol.i., p.37.
The gallant St. Malousin mariner, Jacque Cartier, the discoverer and namer of the bays of Gaspe and Chaleurs, of the St. Lawrence and the isle of Mont Real, was forcibly struck, as he could not fail to be, by the innumerable multitudes of salmon and sea-trout with which those waters are literally alive during the season-since, after above two centuries, during which the reckless extravagance and wanton cruelty of the white settler, more than his greed (for he has slaughtered at all seasons, even when the fish is worthless), have waged a war of extermination on the tribe, their numbers still defy calculation, and afford a principal source or rich, cheap, and abundant nutriment to the colonist, as well as the material for a profitable export trade.
Farther to the west, the waters of all the new England rivers- the mighty flow of the Penobscot, the silvery Kennebec, the tumultuous Androscoggin, the meadowy Connecticut, so far as to the lordly Hudson and the rivers of New Jersey, which enter into its beautiful bay-were found by the first settlers to abound with the sea-salmon; and to their plenteous supply the early Puritan settlers, in no small degree, owed their preservation during the hard and trying times which followed their first attempts at colonization. That the Delaware likewise, abounded in this noble fish, can in no manner be doubted, though we are not at present prepared to show, from the record, that such was the case; for, of all the rivers on this side of the continent, there is no water so well adapted to their habitation, both from the absence of any material fall or chute, which should hinder their ascent, and from the purity and gravel bottom of its own upper waters, as well as of its numerous tributaries, all of which are admirably qualified for the propagation of this species.
South of the Capes of the Delaware, it would seem probable that the true sea-salmon never existed; in the first place, because it appears that, on this continent, the thirty-eighth degree of north latitude is, on both coasts, the extreme southern limit of the true sea-salmon; and secondly, because, in the Susquehanna and rivers still further south, even so far as the Virginian waters, the first discoverers, who had learned, from the accounts of the northern adventurers, to look for salmon in all American streams, gave the name of white salmon to a fish which, in the absence of the salmo salar they did find in the estuaries they entered; and which still, though belonging to a totally distinct family, being a percoid fish. Gristes salmo, or in the vernacular, the growler, retains the honors of its unduly-applied title.
Gradually, as the white man has obtained foothold on the soil, as his civilization, his agriculture, and his manufactures have occupied the hunting-grounds of the aborigines, the tribes of earth, air, and water, with which bountiful Nature had filled the forest, the fields, the streams, the lakes, the ocean bays, to overflowing- a cheap, luxurious, superabundant, self-reproducing nutriment for millions of inhabitants-have, like the red foresters, who subsisted on them, become wholly extinct, have been driven and pent up into remote, inaccessible resorts, or are merely existing, by a last-expiring sufferance, on the verge of absolute extermination .
Of these animals, some have, undoubtedly, passed away of necessity, and in accordance with an invariable law of nature, which precludes the possibility of these creatures existing, side by side, with a dense population, and in the midst of a highly cultivated country.
The deer, the elk, the moose, the caribou, the buffalo, require the free range of untrodden woodlands, or vast prairies, for their residence and support; and as the ax of the white settler has prostrated the wide forest tracts, and his fences and ploughed fields have encroached upon the interminable grassy plains, which for centuries afford them shelter, shade, and pasture, they naturally recede before the foot of the invader, and have become rare and scarce, in proportion as the spots where they can roam and feed unmolested have become few and far between.
Still, in the destruction even of these, the murderous propensities of the white settler, wantonly and uselessly indulged, have unduly hurried the progress of events, which must have come soon enough in nature. As records the moose, the elk, and the caribou, little, perhaps, has been done in the way of extermination, that could have been avoided; for, so wild and shy are these great forest-haunters, that they immediately avoid the vicinity of man and shelter themselves in places as yet sacred form his intrusion.
The deer, which once abounded in every wooded range of hills, from one end of the continent to the other, which are by no means so shy as to eschew the vicinity of man, if not unduly persecuted at all seasons—and for which there are everywhere, even in the most highly cultivated states, ample spaces of connected forests-land stretching over all the spurs and branches of the Allegheny chain, have been almost entirely exterminated in the State of the Atlantic seaboard; and the process of wanton destruction is still in ruthless progress. Whenever a winter of unusual severity occurs, with deep snow-drifts and treacherous crust, hundreds and thousands of these helpless, unresisting animals are knocked on the head by pursuers mounted on snow-shoes, at a time when their flesh is lean and dry, and even their hides are nearly valueless, for the mere love of what their slayers call sport.
The buffalo, for whose support, if left to the ways of nature, and slain only in moderation—as required for the rational use of man—the prairies yet unused, which will not in the course of nature be used during above one generation, would suffice yet for a century—are slaughtered by tens of thousands, merely for the robes and the tongues—the carcasses being left to the wolf, the raven and the coyote, and their bones whitening the wilderness, and marking the trail of the transient white man.
In respect of fish, however, no natural cause prevents their co-existence, in the greatest abundance, with man in his highest state of civilization and refinement, in the midst of the greatest agricultural or manufacturing opulence.
Easily scared, in the first instance, by unusual sight—for it has been, we think, thoroughly proved by a series of curious and interesting experiments on the trout, that most kinds of fish are insensible to sounds,*Those who are curious on this subject are referred to a very clever little work, the Flyfisher’s Entomolgy, published in London, 1839: pp.1-20 – the natives of the water speedily become reconciled to appearances, which become habitual, when found to be connected with no danger.
Consequently, larger cities on their river margins, great dams and piles of building projected into the waters, the dash of mill-wheels, and the paddles of steamers, have no perceptible effect in deterring fish from frequenting otherwise favorable localities. Every angler knows that the pool beneath the mill-wheel is, nine times out of ten, the resort of the largest and fattest brook trout in the stream. Every shad-fisher knows that the growth of Philadelphia and New York has in no wise affected the run of shad up the Delaware or Hudson, how much so ever his own indiscriminate destruction of them by stake-nets, by the seine, and , worst of all, by capturing the spent-fish, when returning weak and worthless to the sea, after spawning, and known as fall shad, may have decimated their numbers, and may threaten their speedy annihilation. It is well known, that the vast saw-mills at Indian Old-town, on the Penobscot, with their continual clash and clang and their glaring lights, blazing the night through, have no effect in preventing the ascent of the salmon into the upper waters of that noble river, wherein they still breed abundantly. It has been proved, beyond the possibility of question, by the vast increase of salmon in the Tay, the Forth, the Clyde, and other Scottish rivers, since the enforcement of protective laws by the British Fishery Boards, that the continual transit of steamers to and fro has no injurious effect on their migrations.
In a word, it is fully established, that, if care be taken to prevent and restrain the erection of obstacles to the ascent of these fish from the salt into the fresh waters, for the deposition of their spawn, and if protective laws be rigidly enforced, to render impossible the wanton destruction of the breeding fish on their spawning beds, and during the season when their flesh is not only valueless but actually unwholesome, while they are engaged in the process of breeding, or are returning, spent, lean, large-headed, flaccid, and ill-conditioned to the sea, for the purpose of recuperating their health and reinvigorating their system, by the marine food, whence they derive their excellence- there is no limit to their reproduction or increase, allowing every fair and reasonable use of them, whether for local consumption or foreign export.
It cannot be said, that, as a nation, we are either ignorant or regardless of the national value of fisheries; when, but a few months since, we were in a state of extreme agitation and excitement and on the point of rushing into hostilities with the most powerful maritime nation on earth, for the assertion of certain questionable rights of fishery—rights, in fact, according to the opinions of some of our most able and responsible statesmen, which were, as per se, entirely untenable—on the coasts and within the bays of a neighboring foreign province.
And yet, were we as ignorant thereof as the most benighted of savages, we could not be more utterly regardless of the mine of wealth, richer, surer, and fat more cheaply obtained than the boasted gold of California, neglected at our very doors, in every river mouth form the Delaware to the St. Croix, along our whole eastern Atlantic seaboard, which might, with a minimum of legislative aid and protection, and the exertion of the smallest portion of common sense, self –restraint, and foresight, on the part of our maritime and rural population, afford cheap and delicious food to hungry thousands, and a large source of national wealth, as a material for export, and stimulant to commercial enterprise.
With the memory of man, the Connecticut river swarmed with salmon; and it is stated, in the Hartford, Courant, that “it is well known that individuals, coming in from the country for a load of shad, could not purchase any, unless they would consent to take so many salmon off the hands of the fishermen. They were often sold as low as two coppers the pound.”
“ The cause of the destruction of the salmon was not,” continues this writer, so much the numbers caught by the fishermen, as the obstructions, which the dam at Enfield placed in the way of the descent of the young fish to the salt water. A resident of Enfield, when a boy, distinctly remembers seeing, in a very dry summer, when the water hardly flowed over that dam, thousands of very young salmon, on the upper side, prevented from going down, all of which died there in a short time.”
Undoubtedly, this writer, though there is a mixture of error in his statement, has arrived at the gist of the matter, when he states the cause of the destruction of the salmon to arise from the obstruction of the salmon opposed by milldams to the migrations of the fish.
It is, however, the stoppage of the ascent of the breeding fish, not that of the descent of the young fry, which is fatal to the race. The salmon can be, and has been, successfully introduced into inland lakes of fresh water, having no communication with the sea; nor is the exclusion of the young fish from salt water fatal to its life, although it prevents its growth, deteriorates the quality of its flesh, and, probably, deprives it of the powers of reproduction.
Inasmuch, however, as the salmon cannot propagate its species except in rapid, highly aerated, fresh, spring waters, if the parent fish are debarred of access to the upper tributaries of the rivers, in which alone their eggs can be brought to maturity, the breed must, of course, become extinct; and, again inasmuch as the salmon invariably returns to breed in the river wherein itself was bred, even if the obstacles to the ascent of the fish were removed. Unless the waters should be restocked, no salmon would ascend them, the way being lost., or a traditionary instinct of the existence of obstacles descending among them from generation to generation.
This fact is evident, from the circumstances that, although sea-salmon abound in Lake Ontario, and run freely up the Credit, and other Canadian streams on the north, as well as up the Salmon River on the south side of the lake, none are ever known to enter the Niagara, doubtless in consequence of the bar interposed to their progress by the Falls of Niagara, which must be known to the successive shoals which arrive at its mouth.
Gradually, the salmon has receded eastward and eastward still, until it is already becoming rare in the Kennebeck, decreasing in the Penobscot, and in gradual by rapid progress of extinction in all the waters of the United States.
Even in the British Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, wherein the salmon fisheries are of vast importance—the exports alone, apart from the home consumption, which is enormous, amounting to the annual value of several hundred thousands of pounds sterling--- such is the reckless destruction of the fish on their spawning beds, at seasons of the year when the flesh is valueless as food, and such are the increasing obstacles to their propagation and increase, that protective enactments are loudly called for, in order to prevent the annihilation of the fish—especially by Mr. Moses H. Perley, H.M. Emigration Officer, who has been largely employed by the Provincial Government in the investigation of this subject, and who has not only devoted much time and attention to the subject, but has thrown much valuable light on it, by his researches.
We understand that the Natural History Society of New Jersey are prepared to make, to the three States New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, an offer to restock the Hudson, Passaic, Raritan and Delaware rivers, with salmon fry; provided the legislatures will jointly, or severally, pass such laws for the preservation of the fish, until they shall become fully established in those waters, and forever during spawning season, including the removal of all obstacles to their free ingression and retrogression to and from the saltwater as shall be deemed sufficient; the society asking no privilege, or remuneration, beyond the actual expenses of providing and transporting the fry.
Mr. W.H. Herbert produces the following indisputable argument, from statistical facts well established, to prove the effect of protective enactments in re-creating fisheries, in rivers where they were rapidly dying out.
“With reference to the preservation of salmon,” he says, quoting form Mr. Perley’s Report on the Fisheries of the Gulf of St. Lawrence,” the Inspectors of the Irish Fisheries reported to the Board as follows:--
“In illustration of the benefits of a steady perseverance in a proper system, we may allude to the Foyle—a noble river in the North of Ireland, washing the walls of Londonderry-‘where the produce has been raised from an average of forty-three tons previous to 1823, to a steady produce of nearly two hundred tons, including the stake weirs, in the estuary, and very nearly to three hundred tons, as we believe, in the year 1842.’ The inspectors also mention the case of the small river of Newport, County Mayo, which was formerly exempt from ‘clove season’. In three years, after the Parliamentary Regulations were introduced and enforced, the produce of this river was raised from half a ton, or, at the utmost, a ton every season, to eight tons of salmon, and three tons of white trout, for the season ending the third year, with every prospect of further increase.”
He also points to the fact, that by the enactment of certain prohibitory laws, as to the taking of the fish at undue seasons, and the erection of insuperable obstacles to the ingress of the breeding
Fish, and the regress of the smolts, as the young fry are technically termed on their descent to the sea, the supervisors of the County of Oswego have succeeded in reestablishing this noble fish in the water of the Salmon River, and its tributaries, to the great advantage of the circumjacent regions.
From these arguments, Mr. Herbert infers that, by the extension of similar provisions to any waters wherein salmon have formerly existed, but are now extinct, coupled with measures considerately undertaken for repeopling the breeding streams, about their head waters, with young fry, all and every one of our eastern Atlantic rivers might be rendered equally prolific with those noble salmon rivers, the St. John , the Miramichi, Restigonche, the Nepisiquit, and others flowing into the bays of Chaleurs and Gaspe, and more so than the Foyle, the Tay, the Clyde, the Forth, and other Scottish and Irish rivers, even in their improved condition.
Mr. Herbert’s theory, as to the destruction of the salmon, in the first instance, which he supposes, which he supposes, in some measure, to have preceded the exclusion of the breeding fish form the proper waters, appears to point to the poisonous matter infused into the rivers by the bark from the saw-mill, which, in all the rivers of the cleared districts, has long passed away, and ceased to have any influence; and he assumes, as a certainty, that there are no causes now existing in the waters, at least, which he has specified, to prevent the propagation and increase of the salmon, to any given extent, if properly introduced, adequately protected, and suffered to visit its spawning places without interruption.
That the object aimed at is worthy of a trial is not to be denied or doubted, and that, if attainable, it would be productive of great national benefit, is as certain- it being no less than the creation, or, at least, the regeneration of a new, or quasi new, branch of national industry, which would necessarily employ and produce a large capital, which would give work and wages to several thousands, probably, of hands, and, what is of yet more consequence, would furnish, in these times of high prices, scarcity of provisions, and increasing demand for food, a cheap and abundant article on nutriment for the masses.
Again, the necessary outlay, for restoring these waters, is rated at so mere a trifle, that it is unworthy of a thought-the estimated expense of stocking the rivers named, in the first instance, not exceeding a thousand or two of dollars, added to the individual outlay of a few mill-owners, in remodeling their dams, in a manner which would permit of the ingress and regress of the fish, without, in any wise, affecting the height the head of water, or the supply maintained by the present system.
We propose to examine, briefly, the feasibility of the scheme; the efficiency of the methods proposed—as we understand them-by the Natural History Society of the State of New Jersey; and the practicability and propriety of the extension of the aid demanded by the legislatures of the three States concerned.
And, first, we shall extract, for the information of our readers, who are unacquainted with the habits of the salmon, the following account of their operations in the reproduction of their species, in the North American waters of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, where they can, in no material degree, differ form the similar habits of the same fish in our own rivers—since it is on the observation of these habits that the whole scheme and all its subordinate details are founded.
The extract is taken from a little work, of great comprehensiveness and utility, by Mr. Perley, alluded to above, entitle—“ A Descriptive Catalogue (in part) of the Fishes of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia,” published at Fredericton, N.B., in 1852. The passage selected will be found at pages 22, 23.
“The salmon enters the rivers of Nova Scotia during the latter part of April. Those rivers of New Brunswick, which fall into the Bay of Fundy, the salmon enters at the latter part of May; while it seldom enters the rivers, which fall into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, until the month of June. The female salmon first enters the rivers; the male fish follows, about a month later than the female; and lastly, come the grisle, or young salmon, which continue to ascend the rivers during July and August.
“Salmon swim with great rapidity, shoot up the most oblique and glancing rapids with the velocity of an arrow, and frequently leap 10 to 12 feet in height. It is believed that the utmost perpendicular hight which a salmon can attain in leaping, is 14 feet; but their perseverance is remarkable, for although they may fail, time after time, yet, after remaining quiescent for a few moments to recruit their strength, they renew their effort, and generally succeed; but, it is said, they sometimes kill themselves by the violence of these efforts.
”In New Brunswick, the salmon seldom deposit its spawn until the middle of October. Mr. Price has observed the salmon in the Miramichi, in the act of spawning, as late as the 20th of November. The fish that have spawned, generally return to the sea before the rivers become ice-bound in December; but many remain in the fresh water all winter, and go down to the sea at the breaking up of the ice in spring.
“On one occasion, in the month of December, Mr. Price states that he saw fifteen large salmon, caught with a spear, though a hole cut in the ice which covered a creek above Boiestown.
“Before entering the rivers, they live awhile in the brackish water of the tide-ways, as they do also when they ascend to the sea, to render the change from one to the other less abrupt, and to rid themselves of certain parasitical animals, which attach to them, they remain long either in fresh water, or in salt, as the case may be.
“ The spawn is not deposited until the water is greatly below its summer temperature. Professor Agassiz stated personally to the writer, that 42 degrees of Fahrenheit thermometer, or 10 degrees above the freezing point, was the temperature at which salmon usually cast their ova. It is absolutely necessary, that water should be aerated, or highly supplied with oxygen; hence the salmon resort to shallow, pure water, and swiftly running streams, the rapidity and frequent falls in which impart purity and vitality, by mingling their waters with the atmosphere.”
“A series of interesting and carefully conducted experiments, in Great Britain, have within a few years led to a much more accurate knowledge of the habits of the salmon than was before possessed, and corrected many erroneous impressions. It has been found that the eggs of the salmon are hatched in 114 days, when the temperature of the water is at 36 degrees- in 101 days when it is at 43 degrees- and in 90 days when it is at 45 degrees. At the end of two months, the young fish attain the length of an inch and a quarter; at the age of six months, it has grown to the length of three inches and a quarter.”
“ In this state the young salmon fry are called parrs, and are readily known by their silvery scales, and by their having perpendicular bars of a dusky gray color, crossing the whole lateral line. In this state the fry remain a whole year in the fresh water, not going down to the sea until the second spring after being hatched. As they readily take both fly and bait, great numbers are often destroyed in mere wantonness; and it is desirable all colonist should know that the destruction of these fry (which, from their dark cross-bars and small red spots like the young of trout, are supposed not to be the young of salmon) will inevitably destroy the run of salmon in any river, and tend, with other causes, to the extirpation of this magnificent fish, When parrs are taken in any angling, they should, if uninjured, be immediately returned to the stream, and every true sportsman will carefully do so.”
“The growth of the parr is very slow, but. When it has attained the length of seven inches, a complete dark change takes place in its color. The dark cross-bars disappear, as also the small red spots, and the fish assumes a brilliant silvery appearance. It then bears the outward semblance of what it really is, a young salmon, and is termed a salmon-smolt.”
“ As soon as this change has taken place, the smolt evinces the most anxious desire to visit the sea; and it is alleged, that if it is prevented doing so, by any insuperable obstacle, it will throw itself on the bank and perish. Up to this time, the growth of the young salmon has been very slow, but, on reaching the sea, it is exceedingly rapid; a smolt of six or seven ounces, after two or three months absence in the sea, will return as a grilse of four or five pounds weight; this has been proved beyond all dispute. Smolts have been taken by hundreds, marked with numbered tickets of zinc attached to their dorsal fin, then set at liberty, and recaptured in the autumn of the same year, as grilse, varying from two to eight pounds in weight. These have been released with the labels unremoved, and have been seen in the spring of the third year, returning to the sea, with weight not increased; in the succeeding autumn, they have been once more taken, as full grown fish, from 16 to 25 pounds weight.”
“The miscroscopical researches of Dr. Knox have shown that the food of the salmon, previous to its quitting salt water consists of the eggs of echinodermata and crustaceae, this rich aliment giving the color and flavor for which its flesh is so highly prized.
This is sustained by the observations of Professor ‘Agassiz, who states, that the most beautiful salmon trout are found in waters which abound in crustaceae, direct experiments having shown, to his satisfaction, that the intensity of the red color of their flesh depends upon the quantity of gammarinae which they have devoured.”
It must now be stated, that it has been fully established that young fish can be propagated, artificially,* in any quantity, by either if the two methods. ‘The one is by taking the breeding fishes alive, male and female, previous to their depositing their spawn, in the gravel shoals of their native river-beds; and compelling the female fish, first by a gentle hand pressure of the hands on her sides, to deposit her ova on a layer of gravel, in a box suitably prepared for the purpose, covered with a wire grating and provided with suitable apertures, similarly guarded at one extremity to admit the influx and efflux of spring water, from a source of proper temperature, without which the ova cannot be matured.
This done, the male fish is, by a similar treatment, force to emit his milt over the female ova on the gravel, which are thus impregnated, when the box is place so as to receive a constant current of aerated running water, subjected to which the eggs are hatched, and the young fish excluded in a space of-
114 days, when the temperature of the water is……36 degrees
101 “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ ….. 43 “
90 “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ ….. 90 “
The experiments, by which these facts were arrived at, were performed in the open air, in natural streams, liable to the ordinary influences of the atmosphere and weather.
The second method is the mixing in the same manner of the milt of the male with the ova of the female fish, taken out of the bodies of fish, recently dead. It is proved indubitably, that the eggs thus prepared, and similarly subjected to the flow of aerated spring water, will produce living fish.
This method has been largely put into practice in France, where extensive waters have been stocked with both fresh and salt water species, although it is certain that sea fishes, if excluded from salt water, lose much of the characteristic excellence of their flesh; while it is doubtful, at least, whether they have the power, under those circumstances, of reproducing their species.
Both these methods, however, presuppose the possibility of having either the live fish taken on the spot, when in condition for the immediate deposition of its ova, or the dead fish, in the same condition, immediately, or within a few hours, after the capture; since it cannot be expected that the vitality of the ova would long survive the death of the parent animal.
These conditions, therefore, render it indispensable that the experiments should be performed, and the system of breeding carried on, where the living fish or the dead fish immediately out of the water can be readily procured—that is to say, in the immediate vicinity of salmon rivers.
This would, of course, render it necessary to form breeding establishments at a distance from this section of the country, and to provide for their subsequent transportation.
Fortunately, however, this difficulty is obviated by another peculiarity of the young salmon, which the Natural History Society of New Jersey propose to turn to account in their scheme of restocking the rivers named above; tributaries of all of which, admirably adapted to the reception of the young fry, are said to exist within the limits of that one State.
On first emerging from the membrane in which it was enclosed, or being hatched, the young fry has the yolk of the egg attached to the anterior part of the abdomen, immediately behind the gills, and for the first twenty-seven days of its existence takes no manner of food externally, being supported wholly by the absorption of this nutritious substance. At the end of this period it has attained the length of about three quarters of an inch, and is identical with that of the trout.
If then turned out into rapidly running, aerated streams with gravel bottoms, suited for the nutriment of trout, it will remain in those waters until the middle of the May of the year next ensuing, or the second after the deposition of the ova which produced it in the month of October or November. In the autumn of that year they will return, grilse, as they are now termed, varying in weight from two to eight pounds. In the succeeding, or third year, having deposited their, they will redescend to the sea, not increased in weight or size; but will make their reappearance in the same autumn, ascending to reproduce their species, full grown fish, weighing, it is confidently alleged, from twenty to forty pounds in weight.
It is on this quality of the young fry of the salmon, as we understand, that the Natural History Society relies for the accomplishment of the scheme.
They calculate with certainty on procuring, at small cost, the young fry, just excluded, with the yolk yet adherent—from correspondents in the British Provinces—enclosed in hogshead of
Spring water, which can readily be transmitted by marine steamers to NewYork and thence by rail to the localities where they should be emancipated.
The feeding streams of the Passaic, Raritan, Delaware, and Hudson, have, we are informed, been carefully explored and investigated by several gentlemen; and waters have been found, abounding in trout, communicating with these rivers, without the interruption of any impassable falls, admirably calculated for fish nurseries, and requiring only a modification of the dams, to enable them at once to become the spawning places and abodes of countless myriads of fry.
Into these streams, being the Second and Third rivers, as they are termed, for the Passaic, the Black river for the Raritan, the Request, and Muscanetcong for the Delaware, and the Walkill and Esopuskill for the Hudson, they propose to turn out sufficient numbers of fry, fully to insure the stocking of the rivers, provided the States will furnish the actual cost of the purchase and transportation in the fish—making no demands for their own time, labor and travel—land grant the protection which they conceive to be necessary, and without the concession of which, it is understood, that they will not stir in the business.
With regard to the feasibility of this scheme according to the premises, there cannot be a question. It has been proved, in other countries, that waters can be as easily stocked with fish as parks with game, or pastures with cattle; and in view of the fact, that these rivers did once, beyond denial, abound in salmon, there can be no doubt, in any unprejudiced mind, that they can be made to produce them again, in undiminished numbers. Nor is it to be disputed, that the method proposed by these gentlemen is simple, reasonable, and well calculated to produce the desired end; while it is presumed that the character and qualification of the persons engaged in the project may be taken as a sufficient guarantee for the plan being well carried out in its details.
There remain to be considered, the conditions on which they offer to restock the rivers, and the practicability and propriety of the according of those conditions by the legislatures of the States concerned.
The conditions, we learn, are as follow:--
1. An absolute prohibition to kill or take salmon in any of the rivers named, or in the bays, estuaries, channels, or sea-ways into which they flow, for the space of five years under the penalty, and its disposition, are assumed to be necessary, in order to induce neighbors, and fishermen, to inform one against the other—the ordinary small fine, exacted in usual game laws, having been found utterly inoperative to procure the rendition of information.
2. The prohibition, under the same penalties, of taking trout, in the same waters and their tributaries, for the same term of years.
This clause is adopted on account of the difficulty of distinguishing between trout and the young salmon fry, which, unless protected, would be liable to destruction, as their congeners the brook trout.
3. The prohibition, under the same penalties, forever, of taking salmon between the months of October and April, in any of the waters named, or their tributaries, or on their spawning beds, or on, or within half a mile of, above or below, any fish-weir, dam, or run-way over which the fish may pass, at any season of the year.
4. The prohibition, under the same penalties, of the erection of any stake weirs, or permanent nets, extending form either shore, above one third of the width of the stream, or intercepting the main channel or current of the river.
5. The absence of any clause, providing that persons shall not be held answerable in penalties for violating the said prohibitions—on their own ground. Such exceptions having been found invariably and totally to prevent and nullify the operation of all protective laws, and to preclude all benefit arising from them.
6. 6th, and lastly, a statute compelling all mill-owners, proprietors of dams, weirs or the like, to erect, within a certain number of months after the passage of the act, to every fall, weir or milldam, exceeding four feet in hight, a slope or apron, extending on the lower side of the fall, from a point one foot below the head of water maintained, to the bottom of the river at an angle of not exceeding forty-five degrees to the horizon; such aprons not to be less than twenty feet in width, or the whole width of the stream in the smallest brooks; and in rivers of two hundred yards and upwards in width, not less than one hundred yards in width, and as nearly as possible in the main current or tide-way of the stream or river.
These are the conditions—easy conditions, it seems to us—on which it is offered to make an attempt, which there is little doubt would prove fully successful to open a new branch of national industry, create a new employment for thousands, and provide a cheap means of subsistence for masses of the people.
That they are strictly practicable, as far as constitutionality is concerned, cannot be doubted. They trespass on the rights of no man, would entail but a small expense on a small class of property holders, which no man of ordinary patriotic feelings could hesitate a moment to incur, for the carrying out of the great aims in view.
Further than this, we believe the protection asked would be adequate to the carrying out of the plan, and that no degree of protection asked would be adequate to the carrying out of the plan, and that no degree of protection, short of that which is asked, would be adequate.
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Natural History of the State of Maine 1862
p.18
“Thus, we find that as early as 1684, when Pemaquid, and the “region round about” were formed into a “Ducal State”. under the Royal grant to the Duke of York, a duty, or tax was put upon the fishermen for the purpose of revenue. “ All vessels, not of the Ducal State, were ordered to pay into the public revenue-- if a decked vessel, four quintals--if an open boat, two quintals of merchantable fish.” In 1732, we find that the people of Saco met with trouble in regard to their river, or interior fishery, by reason of th practices of the officers and soldiers of the “Truck House” (Block-house or fort) and the town voted “that Mr. John Gordon lay a memorial before his Excellency the Governor, and the Honorable Council of the difficultiies and the inhabitants and residents on Saco River sustain by those in the public pay of this Province, by setting nets and drifting with nets to the disturbing of the common course of the fish, and other difficulties that are not for the honor of this Province.--Folsom’s History of Saco
From this date to the present time, legislative enactments have been frequently called for, and an examination of our statute books will prove the fact, that if the natural history of fishes had been very differently framed and much better executed.
Massachusetts commences Legislative Encouragement to Fisheries
Previous to this(in 1639) Massachusetts, whose government had become more stable than that of some of its sister provinces, seeing the great importance of this branch of industry, began a system of encouragement to it by legislative protection. It was provided by law, that all vessels and other property employed in “taking, making and transporting of fish, shouold be exempt from duties and public taxes for seven years; and that all fishermen, during the season of hteir businessm should be dispensed from military duty. This so stimulated the business that in 1641, the mariners of that colony followed the fishing so well, that there was above three hundred thousand dry fish sent to market.
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$20,000 Screen to Save Big Salmon
Big Net Now Keeps Fish in Sebago Lake
Boston Globe May 2, 1920
As the daily salmon haul is reported this season, the anglers will watch the report with unusual interest to see if the fish are running any larger than in the past few seasons.
Because it was believed than many of the big big salmon were escaping into the Presumpscot River, a movement for a fish screen was started last season, with the result that the Legislature reported favorably on a bill authorizing the construction of such a screen. The screen was set up before the Winter season. Whether it accomplished its purpose will not be known for some time.
This screen is probably unique among such appliances for the conservation of fish, Undoubtedly it is the largest and most substantial in the country. Where usually a comparatively flimsy network is set, the Sebago screen is set from shore to shore on what might be termed iron joists., so substantial are it underpinnings. At a cost of about $20,000 it was built to stand the wear of time.
It was a theory that not only were the big fish escaping rapidly from Sebago lake, but that all those which escaped were caught or ground up tin the mechanisms of the mills along the Presumpscot.
From year to year the fish killed by the salmon anglers were averaging smaller. Yet it was well known that there were many fish of 10 to 18 pounds weight in the lake. It may take several seasons before it is definitely settled that the theory in regard to the escape of the salmon was correct or whether on the other hand, the big fish simply refuse to bite.
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SHAD IN THE DELAWARE
Fishways Constructing to Enable Them to Pass a Dam.
New York Times, September 15, 1889
Middletown, N.Y., Sept. 14 – Shad fishing in the waters of the Delaware River is an industry that has flourished on an extensive scale for more than a century. Shad taken form the upper waters of the river are of uncommon size and superior flavor. But the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company is maintaining a dam at Lackawaxen, twenty three miles west of Port Jervais, which cuts off the migration of the shad to their natural spawning beds above the dam, and which has not only destroyed all the productive fisheries that formerly flourished along the upper stream for fifty miles, but has injuriously affected the lower fisheries and diminished the total product of the river. The remedy for this condition of things was the construction of proper fishways at the dam, but in this work, inasmuch as the river at Lackawaxen forms the boundary line between New-York and Pennsylvania, it became necessary for the Legislatures of the two States to take joint action, and this joint action, has only lately been secured, after years of delay and disappointment, by the persistent efforts of the people directly interested in the river fisheries.
At the sessions of the respective Legislatures last Winter bills identical in character were passed empowering the Fisheries Commissioners of two States to construct and maintain good and sufficient fishways at the dam, under joint supervision. The fishways are now being built under contract by Mr. W.H. Rogers, late Inspector of Fisheries of Nova Scotia, who has had experience in such work. The peculiarities of the dam are such that it requires the putting in of four separate ways to give full accommodation to the migration of the fish. The frames of these ways are built of heavy squared timber and covered with four-inch oak plank and are sheathed with iron as a guard against the impact of ice. Each way is bolted to the lower trusses of the dam and anchored by several hundred tons of ballast. By an ingenious arrangement of gates and chutes the current of the water through the ways is restricted to four miles an hour, and fish can pass through, either up or down stream, and in perfect safety at any stage of high or low water.
The fishways will be completed in about fortnight. The State Commissioners who have the work in charge are confident that the doing away with the obstructions at the dam will result in a large increase in the catch of shad and in the more rapid propagation of the Kennebec salmon, bass and other game fish with which they have recently stocked the river.
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SHAD DATA
from
Coming of the Shad
Published April 13, 1902
New York ‘Times
25,000 men employed in Shad fishery of the East coast
15,000,000 shad taken
There is no species of fish more improtant to the residents of the entire Atlantic seaboard that the shad, and none whose capture immediately concerns a larger number of persons.
Travel 5 miles per day up a river.
Early part of present century 1800’s shad ascended
Connecticutt River to Bellows Falls 204 miles- 1902 Windsor locks 89 miles
Savannah to Talluhah Falls 384 miles
PeeDee or Yadkin to Wilkesboro 451 miles
Susquehana to Binghamton new York 513 miles
1902- 800,00 shad taken in Kennebec,
1,000,000 in Hudson
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The New York Times
September 23, 1920
Topic of the Times
Repeating Our Blunder
If the Californians have any attention to spare from the Japanese, they might devote it to –salmon. Also, it would be well for them to do it at once, or at any rate soon, for if they do not the devotion will be too late.
Henry B. Ward contributes to the current issue of Science an article in which he reveals that the people of the pacific Coast now are doing, with far less excuse, exactly what the dwellers on this side of the continent did years ago- they are allowing petty interests along the tributaries of their big rivers to be conserved and promoted in a way which, if continued, will result in the complete destruction of a great and important industry. Already dams without fishways, built in the smaller affluent streams where alone the salmon can spawn, are having the same effect that similar action produced on the Atlantic Coast, and already, in not a few of the rivers to which salmon not long ago resorted every Spring in enormous numbers, not one of them is to be seen or caught.
Even in the remoter rivers of Alaska the annual immigration is decreasing visibly, and though the canneries there are still able to equal or approach their former production, it is done only by the use of more boats, more men, more gear and more of other destructive appliances. So, as Mr. Ward puts it, “the vicious cycle gains in velocity as it decreases in diameter.” When diminution in numbers of any species once has become conspicuous, the end of that species is near; the few representatives of it become so
valuable that they hunted mercilessly by those who have eyes only for the immediate dollar, a sort of vision that still is too common on the Pacific Coast- and everywhere else, for that matter.
They Cost Nothing for Feed- What made the practical extermination of the Eastern Salmon particularly lamentable, and what emphasizes the filly of similar action now progressing in the West, is the fact that thus is destroyed a source whence might come forever an enormous supply of cheap and excellent food. It is obtained at no expense except that of taking and preserving and distributing it.
This food is peculiar in that it causes no drain upon, no exhaustion of, the natural resources of the country. Though born
in one of our rivers, the young salmon soon migrate to the deep sea, there to make practically their whole growth and to bring back from the mysterious depths all their pounds of nutritious flesh from a region that without this agency is wholly inaccessible to humanity. Mr. Ward calls the salmon fishery” a harvest that is of all which man gathers the most profitable, because it demands least care and utilizes for its production otherwise unused sources of energy.” The perpetuation of this harvest concerns the Pacific Coast first and directly, but the whole nation has a measurable interest in it, for the whole nation will suffer an appreciable loss when the salmon are driven away, and that merely because the Legislatures of the littoral States are neglectful of an obvious duty. The task consists only in keeping the headwater spawning grounds accessible to the fish-something that can be done easily, cheaply and with no injury to any other
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ize of trees recorded in colonial times
1770 Dartmouth College 270 white Pine butt to top
1817 Lancaster, New Hampshire white pine 264 feet
1736 Dunstable white pine tall and strait 7 feet 8 inches in diameter at butt end.
statistics from Fishing in New Hampshire by Jack Noon p.21
There was a direct relationship between the size of the trees and the amount of nutreints which were brought from the ocean to inland waters.
A study of Alaskan salmon on the Kenai Peninsula trace a “stable isotope signature” of nitrogen from the spawning salmon. The study found the isotope showed up in the needles of white spruce in a manner “inversely proportionately to the distance from the salmon spawning streams” and correlated this with radio ollared bears. -- the delivery system.
The relevance of this study to new Hampshire, without brown bears, lies in the principle. All anadromous fish that died inland during spawning season added their ocean accumulated nutrients to the ecosystem. generally speaking
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Material source is the NOAA Central Library Data Imaging Project
United Fish Commissioners reports 1871
p.57
Samuel Albro-”We get a half dollar a pound for salmon”.
p. 70 In 1819 I saw a school of menhaden out at sea, when I was going to Portland that was two miles wide and forty miles long.
p 218 “History of Hadley” Massachusetts by Sylvester Judd
the Shad and Salmon Fishery in New England, pp. 313-318
1872
p.22 “Of late the attention of the legislatures of the New England States has been called
to this fact, and to the importance of restoring their fisheries, and a great deal has been already accomplished toward that end. Unfortunately, however, the lumbering interest in Maine, and the manufacturing in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, are so powerful as to render it extremely difficult to carry out any measures which in any way interfere with their convenience or profits; and not withstanding the passage of laws requiring the construction of fish-ways through the dams, these have either been neglected all together , or are of such a character as not to answer their purpose. The reform, therefore, however imperatively required, has been very slow in its progress, and, many years will probably elapse before efficient measures will be taken to remedy the evils referred to.
It would , therefore , appear that while the river-fisheries have been depreciated or destroyed by means of dams or by exhaustive fishing , the cod-fish have disappeared in equal ratio. This is not, however, for the same reason, as they are taken only with the line, at a rate more than compensated by the natural fecundity. I am well satisfied, however, that there is a relation of cause and effect between the present and past condition of the two series of fish; and in this I am supported by the opinion by the opinion of Capt. U. S. Treat, of Eastport, by whom, indeed, the idea was first suggested to me. Captain Treat is a successful fisherman, and dealer in fish on a very large scale, and at the same time a gentleman of very great intelligence and knowledge of the many details connected with the natural history of our coast-fishes, in this respect worthily representing Captain Atwood, of Provincetown. It is to Captain Treat that we owe many experiments on the reproduction of a;alewives in ponds, and the possibility of keeping salmon in freshwater for a period of years.”
p.22” the general conclusions which have been reached as the result of repeated conversations with Captain Treat and other fishermen on the coast incline me to believe that the reduction in the cod and other fisheries, so as to become practically a failure , is due,
to the decrease off our coast in the quantity, primarily of alewives; and, secondarily, of shad and salmon, more than to any other cause. It is well known to the old residents of Eastport that from thirty to fifty years ago cod could be taken in abundance in Passamaquoddy Bay and off Eastport, where only stragglers are now caught. The same is the case at the mouth of the Penobscot River and other points along the coast, where once the fish came close in to the shore, and were readily captured with the hook throughout the greater part of the year. That period was before the multiplication of mill dams, cutting off the ascent of the alewives shad, and salmon, especially the former.
U.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries
Report of the Commissioner for 1872 and 1873
p.81
Certain bodies of water in Maine, especially the upper lakes of the Saint Crook, Reed’s Pond, are inhabited by a variety of the salmon in general habits and appearance closely resembling the true sea-salmon but differing in size. Their average weight in most of the localities mentioned is from 2 to 4 or 5 pounds, sometimes, however, being taken weighing form 10 t 15 pounds . The Sebago Fish is , however, much larger, the mature fish weighing 6 to 8 pounds. A similar fish occurs also in the lakes of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
p.465
“About forty years ago fresh-water salmon were caught in great numbers in Sebago lake.
The Indians in earlier times speared them in immense quantities in autumn on the shoals below the outlet; the early colonists caught them by the cartload during the spawning period, but the thoughtlessness and carelessness of civilization have reduced then so much n number that they are now quite rare. Still, a few may be take with the minnow as they run up the rivers into the lake, and may then be taken with the fly. Some weighing thirteen and one half pounds have been taken with the minnow. Last summer one was caught of ten pound weight. Others of much greater weight have been speared at night while in the act of spawning. the spear in the hand of the poacher has contributed more than any other cause to the scarcity of this fish. Two years ago two poachers speared in three nights in Songo River more than half a ton of salmon. No fish, however prolific can long stand such a drain as this upon its numbers. A little protection and care in artificial breeding would make this lake with its connecting streams, one of the most delightful places of resort for the angler in the world. Down below the outlet the water of the lake, which is of the purest quality, rushes swiftly down and over primitive ledges, and forms magnificent pools and eddies , which are the favorite resorts of trout and salmon. One bright morning last June found me rod in hand and casting the fly at the locality above mentioned, but it was too early in the season, and the gaudy insects failed to attract even a glance from the lurking fish. I substituted a minnow, and trolled him across the boiling eddies below.
A whirl in the foam, a splash of spray, and a strong tug at the line told the story. The hum of the reel as the line swiftly spun out indicated a large fish. Checking his speed for a moment , I could see his sides of silver and pearl glistening in the distant waters below. Alas for human expectation! The log on which I stood, swayed by the current, caused me to lose my balance for a moment. The line slackened for an instant and the salmon, relieved of the constant strain, disengaged himself quick as a flash, and was off in a moment to a safe retreat.
My companion, however, was more fortunate, and landed a two pound fish. The first glance at this fish indicated a distinct variety from the salmon form the Schoodic and other lakes; for its sides were very much spotted, even below the lateral line, and some of the deep spots were underlaid with deep crimson, which appeared in rich contrast with the black and pearl of the sides; the dorsal fin was also very much checked with large and distinct black spots. It would remind the angler of the Salmo trutta marina and (h)ucho trout of Europe, so distinctly marked was the dorsal fin. But the examination of five other specimens at a later day proved that the spots were not constant; for notone of the five exhibited more spots that the fish of the Schoodic and some of them not so many. The appearance of the dorsal fin was also much changed, and in some fish the spots had quite disappeared which leads me to believe that the excess spots is due to food and locality.”
p.468........
p.469
Bangor, me. September 11,1872
Dear Professor: yours of the 4th is at hand. the number of Lippincotts Magazine containing my article on the salmon is May, 1869.
Since I wrote this article, I have satisfied myself that the non-migratory salmon have been seen in Schoodic, Penobscot, and Union ‘River waters only since forty years/ Concerning the Sebago Salmon, I am not so positive, but am quite sure the variety is not one hundred years old, or since the erection of impassable dams on it s outlet. The Schoodic salmon are about forty years old , and the old Indian hunters have given me the precise time of their appearance and disappearance of the migratory salmon, which coincides with the erection of impassable dams.
Migratory salmon of large size were at that time speared on the same grounds where the small salmon are now taken in great numbers, and which are never over five pounds in weight.
I have published but one other paper on the Salmonida, that on the togue, which is printed in the Maine Geological Reports of Hitchcock’s survey, and I have no doubt but that the description is correct and the fish new to the scientific world. The Salmo Gloveri is nothing but a parr. I examined the fish several years before Girard saw his specimen, and recognized it as the young of the migratory salmon. They have disappeared from the Union River since the extinction of the salmon.
Yours , Truly,
A.C. Hamlin,
Atkins, Charles G. The river fisheries of Maine. Report on the Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States sec vm vol 1 pp673-728
Broadhead, J. M Upon the abundance of fish on the New England Coast in former times Report for 1871-72 1,pp 169-170 1873 (Out of Print)
p.20 US FISH report 1906
p.20
Cumberland County 110 pounds salmon commercially caught Cumberland County value $19
p. 588 NOAA p. 536
“The most formidable and indeed insuperable obstacle to the ascent of the salmon were the innumerable dams constructed on almost all the streams near their mouths. These were usually of perpindicualar height
so great as to utterly repel the attempts of the fish to overcome them.
This cause of the disappearance of the salmon is so paramount and obvious that the discussion of any other would be superflous were it not that it seems appropriate in a paper like this to present every possible view of the question before us, and for the very conclusive reason that several streams , of which the Au Sable river is a striking instance, that have equally suffered with the others from the abandonment of the salmon, have never impeded the run of the fish by dams or any other artificial obstruction. Had the advent of the salmon in the rivers been coincident with the season of high water, their ascent of these impediments would have been immensely facilitated, but their run was was precisely at the usual occurence of the lowest flow of the streams. The volume of water was almost totally exhausted by the flumes, and at times scarcely trickling ov etht a[ron of the dam, without furnishing any supply to the slopes or slices construccted inaccordance with the statute. the popular excitement became at length so deeply inflamed by acts which were then regardes aencroachment on public immunities that the grand jury of Clinton County, New York, were impelled, in the year 1819, to present an indictment against the proprietors of the dam erected at the mouth of the Saranac River in Plattsburg. T he indictment, among other averments, alleged that previous to the erection of this dam “ salmon were accustomed to pass, and actually did pass, from Lake Champlain into
and up the Saranac River for a distance of twenty miles;888 that before the dam was built salmon were seen above the site;”.” that salmon begin to ascend the river form the lake in June and July, but largely in August and September”. It appeared the dam was fourteen feet high, and the sluice-way forty feet long: and arranged at an angle of 30 degrees.
This indictment was vehemently pressed, and resulted in protracted and bitter trial in the circuit court. It was calculated to open a thorough investigation of the habits and movemnts of the salmon in connection with that particular stream . A great mass of the witnesses, embracing , embracing most of the early settlers then living, were introduced, and had the great volume of testimony takenon that occasion been presurved, we should now be in possession of all the essential facts and incidents necessary to fo form a history of the salmon fishery of that period and locality. Although the case was elaborately argued in the supreme court (Johnson’s reports, 17 page 195) both on the merits of thelaw, the decison which was in favor of the defendants, unfortunately rested on purely on legal and technical views, and we have but slight references to the facts in the report. We detect, however, faint glimmerings of the evidence in the arguments of counsel. It seems to have been in proof that the water in the sluice-way was too shallow to admit the passage of fish.
It is worthy of remark that one point of Mr. Walworth, the future eminent chancellor, as counsel for the defense, and evidentlybased on some features of the testimony, was that “no fish visit the lake from the ocean; the salmon ascend from the lake, and are fresh water fish”
And it appears from a point made by the opposing counsel that “the evidnece in the case is that salmon abounded at the foot of the dam, and would ascend the river if not hindered by that obstacle”.
We may perhaps appropriately refer, as a subordinate cause of these results, to the depredations of other fish upon the salmon by assailing them on their spawning grounds, destroying the ova, killing the young fish on their passage to the sea, and frightenening the salmon from their usual haunts. this cause, of course, always existed, but circumstances might have stimulated its development.
These changes in the physical condition of the region seem adequate to producing the abandonment by the salmon of the Champlain waters, but they were entirely local. The eccentric and capricious nature of all fish, which produces many strange phases in their movement, and from the general operation of which the salmon is not exempt, may be a possible cause of their diappearance from these waters. The idea is probaly fanciful; but as my purpose is to unfold the whole subject, it may not be unworthy of a moment’s inquiry. Is it wholly improbable that he abandonment of the Champlain waters by the salmon may be due to their finding more genial resorts and fresh and more attractive feeding ground? I will venture to present a few facts in support of this suggestion. During my
long residence on the borders of Lake Chjamplain, I have observed that a particular kind of fish will occassionaly, through several successive seasons , be very abundant; that he supply graduallly will diminshes, until, in the end, they nearly disappear, while another variety becomes predominate., rapidly increases as the first decreases, and they also pass through the same changes. The smelt, a marine fish, was, until, a comparatively recent period, almost unknown to the fisherman of the lake; but in late years it is often taken in vast quantities through the ice, while in some seasons it is rarely seen. Such, also, has been largely the history of a choice fish known in the region as the lake-shad.
3. traits of the Salmon
p.538
The perinacity of the salmon in renewing, after repeated failures, their attempts to leap up fall too high for their powers,
and the vast muscular force they exhibited, was witnessed by the settlers with equal wonder and admiration. I do not know that the myth, which once prevailed in the popular faith of New England and Scotland, that the salmon taking the tail in its mouth formed a wheel and thus rolled up the cascade, ever obtained in this region; but the stories of the pioneers and old fishermen were almost equally marvelous. The fish ascended the precipice by the mere exertion of physical strength; but the method which they adopted to secure a safe descent reveals a wonderful instinct or a rare exercise of sagnacity and intelligence. They were accustomed, it is related, to approach very near the verge of a fall, and instead of allowing themselves to be precipitated headlong or rolled sideways down the current, with the imminent peril of being dahed upon the rocks below or drowned, they would deliberately turn their tails toward the cascade and by the vigorous action of their fins and motion of their bodies would maintain their position and be borne safely down the obstacle.
The progress of the salmon in their annual migration from the sea to the tributaries of the lake seems to have been singularly slow and methodical.
Instead of diffusing themselves at once promiscously throughout the lake, the advance from the north was apparently controlled by a system or some law of instinct. the old fishermen all concur in the recollection that a considerable interval, varying in their statements form one week to a month, always occurred between the time of arrival in the Saranac and their appearance in the Au Sable, although the mouths of these streams are only separated by a space of about twelve miles. Incidents in the habits of the salmon, which came under my personal observation more than 50 years ago, expose some traits which possibly may be regarded in the measures in progress to rehabilitate the streams with these fish. A high bridge spanned the Saranac, near its moluth, in the village of Plattsburgh; a massive dam stood a few rods above, asi it did at the commencement of the century; on the west end of the dam, teh statuatory trough or slope had been constructed , and on the opposite end was situated a large- mill,
which discharged a strong and impetous volume of water through a race-way. I saw schools of salmon swimming below the bridge the bridge, and individuals speared from it at a height of fifteen or twenty feet. They seemed to wandering in confusion, ascended to the foot of the dam and returned, paying no attention to the sluice way, which was impracticable for their ascent from the slight supply of water that passed down the slope. They were constantly attracted to the raceway, and plunged into it as if its rushing current was congenial to their habots, or perhaps in vain hope of reaching by the channel their appropriate breediing grounds. A weir was built in this raceway, in which, during the season, salmon were daily captured.
p 93 US Fish Commissioner Reports 1871 part 1 NOAA 142
As early as 1719 the general assembly passed an enabling act empowering each town council “ to take care for the preservation of the fishery within their respective jurisdictions, and to rmove all obstructions made in any rivers that may prejudice the inhabitants by stopping of fish from going up the stream.”
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Investments in Maine Water Power
from the Lewiston(Me) journal/
the energy of Lewiston gentlemen in buying Maine water powers
seem to indicate that somebody wants them, and that somebody looks
to this State as a profitable feild for manufacturing to an extent not
dreamed of a the present time.
NEW YORK Times : February 12, 1900
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Agriculture of Maine by Maine Board of Agriculture 1867
page 113-114
Mr. William Getchell, who owned the small island in the middle of the river at Ticonic Falls, Waterville, and fished there with a dip net from 1804, used to take $500 to $600 worth of shad and alewives annually. With his three boys he had taken 1,100 shad and 20 salmon in an afternoon. One day four men, of whom he was one, dipped out and boated ashore 6,400 large shad. The most of the salmon fishing was with drift-nets below the falls. Mr. Getchell had counted eighty two of these nets, each employing two men with a canoe, fishing at one time. He estimated the average at forty canoes, and that each took three salmon a day. This gives 4,800 salmon in forty days fishing.
From Samuel Philbrick, Esq., of Skowhegan, we learned that there were many salmon and shad caught at that point, although the falls were not favorable for fishing, and nearly all the fish passed by. The fishing here was with dip nets, and a man would not generally dip more than twenty shad in a day. A trap set for salmon, in 1808, and several years after, used to average six salmon a day. At Caratunk falls there was better fishing, and it was easy to load a boat with salmon in a day.
Col. Christopher Thompson of Emden, used to fish at Carratunk falls.
The greatest catch he ever knew with a drift net was sixty in one night. The year when the Augusta dam was carried away he and his brother caught thirty.
We have many more statements, but these will suffice. To show the extreme difficulty of arriving at a reliable estimate of the former produce of the river, we will make tow calculation on the number of salmon taken in 1820. In the first place, take Mr. Kennedy’s estimate, that in that year were taken in Augusta 4,000. In 1867 the whole number taken in Augusta was 70., and in the whole river 1,200. By proportion we have 70:4000;1,200:68,571.
This indicates 68,000 as the produce of the river from Augusta down. Now take Mr. Emmons’ estimate that there were 60 weirs below Bath at that time, and they used to average 45 salmon a tide or 90 a day. Assuming 40 days as the length of the fishing season, 3,600 were taken by each weir, or 216,000 in all.
The last estimate may seem very large, but it is by no means incredible, when we compare it with the yield of some European Rivers. The Tay, for instance, in Scotland,draining a basin not one third as large as that of the Kennebec, produces to its proprietors a yealry rental of L15,000; and that portion between the Isla and sea has , in some years, yielded in1864 20,512. In 1866, 31,000 salmon taken in the harbor of St. John, were sent fresh to Boston. Of one thing we feel assured, that long before the Kennebec was closed with dams, its course was so encumbered with weirs and nets that a small part of the salmon could reach the breeding ground.
Of shad and alewives we cannot form an estimate; but the quantity was greater than that of salmon. 3,000 barrels are estimated to have been taken in the Sebasticook at Clinton yearly. ...........
Roger W. thinks that before heavy fishing netting and fishing pressure on the Kennebec the annual salmon run reached into the millions.
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Raymond historical society says, "Before 1900, this area was the site for several mills. In 1901 the hatchery was built. Thousands of fish were caught here in the early 1900’s; a 35 lb. Salmon was not uncommon. Today the fish are stripped here and taken to a Casco hatchery."
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