St. Mary's beacon., 1858-07-01

NODES OF TAXING TaEM.

- selmon Fishing
MoDEs OF TAKING TaEM.
A correspondent Of the Journal Of Commerce,
writing from Bangor. Me-, furnishes the fol-
lowing information upon a subject in which
all true sportsmcn, if not the entire communi-
ty, take deep intciest. The hope expressed
at the close Is one which we reiterate most
heartily:
Yesterday morning, in passing through the
main street of this city, my eve was attracted
to number of very large fish. which, at the
6rst glance, supposed to be sturgeon. A
nearer approach and a second inspection told
ule that was gazing upon very choice lot of
what the disciples Of Izaak Walton term the
king of fish," The salmon of the PenobScot
ard other rivers of Maine are celebrated among
American epicures for their superioriy over
members of the same beautiful tribe which
find their way from the shores of Canada into
the markets Of Boston and New-Yurk. This
year has been a little more than the average
luck" in capturing the salmon in these waters,
and every day the various steamers that ply
from the coast Of Maine to Boston, bear away
large boxes of fresh salmon, carefully packed
in ice. The final destination is the chief cities
OI DtiH IaDu, ITpI0 DO'IOu I'd UblScSlOtIs IEOII
New York to St. Louis. These lrincely fish
are not sent 10 the class Of individuals who
take them, but there are "middle men" here,
as we'll as in New York, who go up and down
the rivers purchasing the salmon at IL to 81
cents per pound From these data you New
Yurkers, who pay your so cents per pound
for the dainty red steak, or the delicious NOR
sci for boiling, may perceive that this COM
merce is not without its lucrative results.
"On the coast Of Maine the regular salmon
fishing is not that glorious sport which Walton,
Markham, Cotton, Bainbridge and Lanman
have described in such glowing colors. 1t Is
here nothing less than wholesale trapping.
Every traveller down east has looked from
the deck of his steamboat upon the stakes, set
cl,sey together, which border the rivers in
particular places. These are the 'weirs' for
en.-apping the salmon, Given lin the waserl
a lot 6i poles close together. arranged in tic
form Of a PROSTATE letter = with the longest
portion reaching to the shore, and. you have
the wier for taking the salmon as they ascend
or descend the river. This is q very different
affair from killing salmon, the ne plus ultra
of fishing as pursued by English noblemen,
gentlemen and sportsmen in Scotland and Nor
.ay. The latter mode is by the rod, the line,
| and the artificial fly; and the taking of the
game under such circumstances is sometimes
as exciting as buffalo huLt or deer stalking.
"rhe revenue derived from salmon in the
state of Maine must in the course of the year
amount 10 many thousands of dollars; while
the British possessions, by the same fish, must
reap from us twice as many thousands. The
Canadians send them over railroads to our
markets. 1t is to be feared, however, that
| the salmon will become extinct in the waters
| Of this state, as they have in those of Massa-
chusetts Connecticut and New-York. 1t is
no idle tradition that servants, some scores of
years 'agone,' stipulated in Wetherslield,
Hartford, and other places of the nutmeg state,
| that they should have salmon only so many
| times q week. Now no salmon is so daring.
except on rare occasions, as to wag his tail in
| the Connecticut any considerable distance from
its embouchure. The Hudson was once a
| famous river for the sGlDsonidte. In 1909,
when the good old mysterious 'Hendrick' as
scuded the river named after him, he recorded,
as he passed along the Palisades, saw great
stores of salmon Now the visit to the Hud-
son Of one of these luscious scaly fellows is
'like angels visits &c. Doubtless steamboats,
have done much to drive them from our wa
tiers but floating timber, bits of board and
sticks have had more to do with their disap-
pcarance than any other cause
"Wit!iin the recollection of persons still liv-
ing OH the Penobscot, salmon could be taken
with dip-net by the boat load, at the falls
above Bangor and the time is not long past
when they could be purchased all along this
river for five aud six cents pound But the
multiplication of saw mills, the clatter of ma
chinery, the immense quantities of floating
timber and debris of the mills have rendered
the salmon scarce article. The sawdust and
small sticks have, doubtless, done more than
anything else tO fTighten away from Maine
these exceedingly tinlid fish. In few years
We shall have to depend upon the st. Law
renee for our salmon. and when the march OF
civilization shall have driven them thence, we
will have to Look to the waters of North Caro-
lima aud Oregon, where the salmoaid1 are of a
large size and rich flavor.
In Scotland and the neighboring isles, the
bug bears Of floating timber and saw-dust do
not exist to drive away the poor salmon; and
although the various contrivances for taking
them are many, and the number Of stOmachs is
daily increasing in Great Britain, vet the sup
ply is wonderfully kept up In 1885 nearly
500 were taken at one haul in a bay Of the
Islay. And one writer says that 'the general
capture that season was very great From
reliable and accurate data it is ascertained that
for some time in 1885 one hundred thousand
salmon were weekly shipped from the eastern
ports of Scotland.
scrhe salmon abounds in Northern Europe
and Asia. Il Is found as far south as France
on the Eastern Continent. In the New World
its limits on the Atlantic are Greenland and
the Hudson; on the Pacific, Behring Straits
and California. When the female spawns il
is in q ditch made by herself and the male at
the bottom of the river. She covers the egga
20 that they have nine inches Of gravel shove
them Tho spawn thus reuains until spring,