As to the particular species, I do not get any reliable information, as so few of our fishermen know anything about salmon, and in fact the men from the traps on Sconticut Neck did not know what the fish were.
John H. Thomson.
FISHING ITEMS. "A ten-pound salmon and seventeen tautog, weighing over one hundred pounds, were taken from the weirs of Magnolia, Thursday night. This is the first salmon caught off Cape Ann for over thirty years. On Saturday morning three more large salmon were taken and 150 large mackerel. The fishermen are highly elated at the prospect of salmon catching." (Cape Ann Advertiser, June 6, 1879.)
[Postscript to a letter from Monroe A. Green, New York State Fishery Commission, to Fred Mather, June 9, 1879.]
"P. S.--Kennebec salmon caught to-day in the Hudson River at Bath near Albany weighing twelve and a half pounds, sold for 40 cents per pound. The first that have been caught for years."
State of Maine, Department of Fisheries,
Bangor, August 25, 1879. [Extracts.]
Dear Professor: We have had a great 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 Mattawamkeag where we put in 250,000 and upwards, in 1875 and 1876, a great 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 North American Railroad. The dam at Kingham is 13 feet; 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 John salmon; it all sells as Penobscot salmon. Saint John salmon costs here, duty and all included, about 14 cents per pound. Our first salmon sells at $1 per pound, and so on down to 12½ cents the last of the season.'