Daily Yellowstone journal., 1890-08-01
CURIOUS MAINE FISHING.
Nearly 100000 squirming Little Ale.
wives Are Captured In u Day.

Nearly a0O,0 900 squirming Little Ale.
wives Are Captured In "a Day.
Damariscotta Mills, a small village
about midway from the cities of Bath
and Rockland, is one of the busiest
places in Maine during the last of May
and the first part of June. The cause
Of this unusual. activity is the appear.
ance of that migratory fish, the ale
wife.
l am informed that nowhere in the
New England states are there as many
of that kind of fish captured as here.
There have been taken from the stream
in one day upward Of POO, 600, and
$50, 900 in "A day is not "A rare catch.
This bony fish generally makes itself
visible from May l to May 10 annually,
and the run lasts about three weeks.
There are three streams issuing out OF
the Damariscotta lake from a fall of
sixty feet, and in these streams are ar
ranged stout locks for the reception Of
the fish.
The fish come from the sea up the
Damariscotta river, thence into a large
bay, where on a bright sunny day
millions of them may be seen school
ing" preparatory for making a u for
the stream. Upon their arrival within
the locks they are taken out of the
water in dip nets and thrown into large
square boxes-called traps-holding
from 5000 to 5000, and then sold to
the ''smackers' for fifty cents a hun
bred, and carried by them in hods hold
ing 200 to their carts TO be transported
to the smoke houses.
The hods are made from flour barrels
by saving off about one-third of the
top and mailing two poles, n on each
side, with cleats of board connecting
to strengthen them. During a pleas.
ant day, when there is a large run and
a good many ''countrymen,' ms the
boys call them, are in, it is very anus
ing to watch the barefoot urchins fol.
low up the hods To pick up the squirm.
ing fish as they flop off to the ground.
Two or three Of these young Amer.
icas will be after one hod mt a time,
and the way they'll scramble to pick
up the fallen fish will make the most
sedate ~dyspeptic laugh, for they'll push,
punch and fight like two dogs after a
bone, s~tringing them on their fingers as
fast as they gather them in. The young
kids will stock more than 1909 in this
way some days, with the assistance of
~purloining a few from the traps and
casts of the countrymen.
The smokers do not buy all of the
fish, however; the surplus is sold to a
Boothboy Harbor firm, which has q
large sailing and packing platform
about $50 yards from the fishways.
Wooden aqueducts in which there
is running water are erected, and con-
nect the fishways with the packing es-
Enlistment. The surplus fish are
thrown into these aqueducts, and car.
ried by the water to the packing plat
form, landing on a large wooden
strainer, where they are salted and
packed IN barrels.
A barrel Of sailed alewives brings
from So. 50 to Sc in the market, and the
fish are, am informed, shipped to AT.
RIGA; also South America.
The smoking of the alewife is another
process. As Dol a. they arrive at the
smoke house the fish are placed in tubs
holding 1000, salted, and remain in
that state usually three or four days,
according to the temperature of the
weather, after which they are washed
and strung on sticks holding from 10 to
II in number, and then hung on poles
placed In the upper part of the house.
Large holes are dug in the earth there
is no floor in the smoke house,, around
which large stones are placed, a fire is
built out of logs and banked with saw.
dust, and the alewife is now prepared
to receive its red coat in a few days.
When ready for market the first fish
bring as high as g n hundred. but later
In the season get down as low as Is
and Sn aantS r,r n,af,n u.raII