USA > Maine > The history of the state of Maine; from its first discovery, A. D. 1602, to the separation, A. D. 1820, inclusive, Vol. I > Part 16
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The Frostfish, sometimes called Tom-cod, are found about the bays and mouths of the rivers in the summer, and in the winter they inhabit fresh waters. They are shaped and finned like a codfish and coloured like a silver eel, scaled and fine flavoured. They are very small, weighing only from 8 to 18 ounces. They
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are plenty every where, but found in the greatest abundance about Narraguagus, Pleasant river, and in that quarter. In places where they are so very plenty, they are caught and stacked in December and January, and afterwards cut and given fresh to cattle.
The Cusk deserved a place prior to the frostfish, for it is su- Cusk. periour and found only in salt water-weighing from 5 to 20 pounds. It is shaped much like a catfish ; its head is round, with jaws full of small teeth ; its body is generally two feet in length, more or less, according to its size, very solid ; its liver only is fat as in a codfish. Though not so pleasant to the taste as the cod, it makes good " chowder," and no dry fish is better, especially when it is three years old. It dwells with the cod, though seldom found in so deep water. A fresh water Cusk is said to be plenty in Moosehead lake.
This is the family of the Codfish, and none other is so univer- sally esteemed for the table.
The Eels are plenty in our waters; of which we have two kinds, and two species in each kind : the two species of one kind, viz. 1. Lamprey,* and 2. Sea-sucker,t are certainly amphibi- ous ; those of the other,-viz. 1. the silver Eel,t and 2. the Conger Eelf are the best for food. The bat, the eel, the swal- low, the turtle, the frog, the toad and the serpent have been com- monly called " the seven sleepers."||
Eel kind.
The Lamprey is without bone; and one of three feet, a com- Lamprey mon length, will weigh 3 pounds and will cleave so fast to a rock, Eels. when pulled, as to take one up of 4 pounds. It is darker col- oured and less slimy than a silver eel ; it is cylindrical and large as a man's wrist to its bastard fins, which begin about midway of its length and continue to the tail. Its skin is so tightly ingrained with the flesh that it cannot be taken off ; and it has 9 or 10 eye- let-holes, as large as a pea, on each side of its back. It has no teeth, but large gooms and sucker-mouth; with which some of the smaller ones often fasten themselves to a salmon, or shad, and are thus carried up the falls.
* Petromyzon Fluviatalis. t Petromyzon Marinus.
Į Muraena Anguilla.
¿ Muraena Conger.
|| The Blenny and Eel kind bring forth their young alive.
VOL I. 11
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During the last ten years, they have not been found in such abundance in the main rivers as formerly, though they are now plenty in the Piscataquis ;- they are taken in the spring and summer months. They spawn in May or June; and afterwards attach themselves to logs, roots and stones, near where they cast their spawn, and there gradually perish, mortifying from tail to head. From the back may be drawn a sinew which, when stretched, is thrice the length of the body, and makes as tough a counter-string for a violin as catgut. They are caught at the falls with spears, gafts, hooks without bait and even with the hands covered with mittens, to prevent their escape.
The Silver Eels, found in both salt and fresh water, are taken Silver Eels. at all seasons of the year, and are very good for food : They are speared in the winter and taken by hooks in the summer. They, like the Lamprey, are without bones and scales, and are about the same size, though some of them will weigh 6 pounds. They have two fins near their gills, another on the back, which runs to the tail, as on a cusk or catfish. Their young is seen about the first of June, two inches in length and about as large as a small wire, and almost transparent. But how do they procreate their species, since neither spawn, eggs, nor young, are found in them at any season of the year ?
The Conger Eels are caught in our bays and salt waters of our rivers. They have a round head, also teeth, and otherwise look much like a catfish, only slimmer ; one of two feet is a com- mon length, being only as large as a man's wrist. They bed in the mud like other eels, and when well cooked, they are received into the stomach with a good relish. Their natural colour is yellowish, but what is remarkable, they will, when dying, change their hues, or shades, to a pale green or faint purple.
Not long before the close of the last century, a French mer- chantman, in the autumn, grounded on the flats, a league below Backsport, in Eastern river ; and as she settled down with the ebb, her sides rested on a large bed of Conger eels, which being thus ousted of their settlements, were taken by the mariners and found to be very grateful to the taste and stomach.
The Flounder family,* embraces five species, 1. the flat
"lounder ind.
* 1. Pleuronectes Flesus .- 2. Pleuronectes Platessa .- 3. Pleuronectes Hippoglassus .- 4. Plccrorectes Papillosus .- 5. Pleuroncctes Squatma.
Conger Cels.
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Flounder, 2. the Plaice, 3. the Halibut, 4. the Dab, and 5. the Skate.
The Flounder is exclusively a scaled salt water fish, and is Flounder. found near the bottoms in coves and rivers, and consequently tastes too much of their muddy beds to be palatable. It has a black back and a very white belly; one of a common size is about 12 inches in length and 1 and 1-4th of an inch thick; it has two black fins on its sidewise back, near its head, and a white one near the throat : and 4 inches from the head, on the back and belly, are the roots of its tail-fins, running nearly to the roots of the fan-fin at the end of the tail, which is in length and width about two inches. The peculiarity of this family is its mouth. The Flounder's is not horizontal, but about half way between that and a perpendicular ; that is, an angle of 45° from the ground ; and hence it seems to lie on one side.
The Plaice is such another, though without scales, smaller and Plaice. too strong to be fit for the table. It is lighter coloured than a flounder and less plenty, and dwells in the same places. One of a common size will weigh a pound.
The Halibut is a large scale fish, weighing from 10 to 200 Halibut. pounds, commonly about 75 pounds. It is found in considerable abundance off our coasts, about the bays and Islands, and espe- cially on the Grand Banks, but only in salt water. The colour of its back is a dark slate, its belly white, and extending only one foot from the gills, is very short, inclosing a small quantum of entrails. One of 75 pounds is six feet long, between 2 and 3 feet across, as it lies like a flounder apparently on one side, and only 6 inches through the junk in thickness. Its mouth makes an angle of 70° with the horizon ; its fins are on each of its sides, extending two inches into the body to the joint, and terminating 6 inches above the roots of the tail : the flesh, on those called " Halibut-fins," are fat and when fresh very palatable; as are also its head and nape. They are taken with hooks, but are dif- ficult to handle owing to their flat shape.
The Skate swims like a flounder, is without scales and quite skate. short, being not more than three feet in length ; yet it is two feet or more in breadth, and will weigh 30 pounds; though their sizes are variable,-from 5 to 50 pounds. Its tail, two feet in length like that of a land tortoise, is very rough and full of
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prickles ; near which, on each side, it has something like two legs, 8 inches or more in length, with which it can clasp hold of sub- stances : it has fins on both sides like the skirts of a saddle ; it is seldom eaten.
Lumpfish,
The Lumpfish* is naturally a clumsy creature and is found only in salt water, mostly about the westerly coast of the State. It has a prominence on the back like that of a camel, and as large in propotion to the creature ; also two gill, or nape fins, and a small tail, somewhat like that of a flounder, and a very small mouth. :
Of this sort, are two varieties, if not species ; the mud or green, and the red lump ; both are good to eat, though the latter is the best ; they are shaped alike : the larger sizes are 20 inches in length, 15 in depth, up and down, also about 10 in thickness, and may weigh 20 pounds or more. From head to tail, on each side of the back, are three rows of hard substances as large, severally, as a finger nail; and each, half an inch from the other. The green Lump is transparent, so that the finger on its opposite side from the eye can be easily seen. On the breast, each has a sort of sucker mouth, by which it can hold fast to any substance.
The Mackerelt is a very elastic fish, of which we reckon three species :- 1. the Mackerel : 2. the horse Mackerel : and 3. the Bill-fish : all of which dwell in salt water.
The real Mackerel is very handsome in shape and colour ; is fat and palatable, and one of a middle size will weigh two pounds ; it is very long and cylindrical, with bright clouded back, (black and green,) white teeth, and nape and centre fins : they are taken in great plenty off Mount Desert rock and in other places on our coast. Its scales, which are small and thin, it sheds in the ago- nies of dying.
Horse mackerel.
The Horse Mackerel, or Mackerel Shark, is coloured, shaped, and finned like the other, but it is too coarse grained, dry, and rank to be fit for the table. They differ very much in size, be- ing from 20 to 200 pounds in weight ; the smaller are taken with hooks and the larger are harpooned .- Capt. Lowell caught one
* Clydopteras Lumpus.
+ 1. Scomber scombus .- 2. Scomber lanis .- 3. Scomber rostratus. It is said, a Mackerel will produce 5 hundred thousand eggs in one season.
Mackerel.
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which weighed about 300 pounds. They are often seen, though not very plenty in our waters.
The Bill-fish is a small, rare salt water fish, weighing only Bill-fish. about half a pound; and though so light, it is, from the end of the bill to that of the tail, 15 inches in length. Its head, except its bill, which is two inches long, is like a herring, the residue like a mackerel ; its flesh is dark coloured, and in flavour rather rank to the taste.
Of the Minnow, or Menow* kind, are two species :- 1. the Menow. Menow; and 2. the Sucker.
The Minnow is a very small, slim fresh water fish, with silvery scales, is from two to three inches in length, and is used alive as bait to catch pickerel. When in perfect trim, immediately after spawning, its back is almost black, its belly a milkwhite, and its sides dappled like a panther's, inclining to a grayish sky colour.
The Sucker is found in plenty in fresh waters only ; it is rather Sucker. more yellowish than a chub ; weighs from 1 to 3 pounds, being from 12 to 18 inches in length, and when taken in cold weather, is eaten.
Monk-fisht is very plenty about Owl's-head and other bays ; Monk-fish. its length about three feet, its weight 15 or 20 pounds ; its head is great, being in weight about a third part of the whole fish ; and its mouth and jaws, of a half-moon form, are proportionably large, whence the proverb, of one who opens wide a large mouth like a monk-fish, " we can see what he ate for breakfast." Its belly, as it swims, is partly on one side, like a flounder's ; and thus situated, its horizontal width is 12 or 15 inches and more than three times its perpendicular thickness. It is not eaten.
The species of the Perch familyt are eight :- 1, 2, and 3. the Perch. red, the white, and the sea Perch : 4. the Whiting : 5. the Bass : 6. the Shiner : 7. the Chub : and 8. the Bream.
The red Perch is so called, because its under fins are of a palish red :- It is from 6 to 10 inches in length, is good for the table, and weighs from 10 to 20 ounces. It has a horn fin on its back, like a bass ; and, perpendicularly, up and down its sides, it is handsomely striped and clouded with black and yellow.
* 1. Cyprinus .- 2. Cyprinus castostomus forstor. + Lophius piscatorius. + 1. Perca fluviatalis .- 2. Perca lucioperca .- 3. Perca undulata .-- 4. Per- ca alburnus. - 5. Perca ocelate .- 6. Perca nobilis .- 7. Perca philadelphica. -8. Perca chrysoptora.
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Perch.
The white and sea Perch, as I am informed by fishermen, are so nearly alike, as to render it difficult to trace a difference. These are found in salt and fresh water ponds, coves and rivers : they are larger and deeper coloured than the red Perch, and their sides are as light as an alewife's.
Whiting.
The Whiting is a small but wholesome fish, a companion of the preceding-seldom seen.
Bass.
The Bass is a large scale fish, variable in its size from 10 to 60 pounds. They are striped with black, have bright scales and horned backs, and are caught about the coasts. They ascend into the fresh water to cast their spawn, in May or June, being lean afterwards and fat in the autumn. In June, 1807, there were taken at the mouth of the Kenduskeag, 7,000 of these fishes, which were of a large size-a shoal, either pursued up the river by sharks, or ascended in prospect of their prey, or to cast their spawn. Bass is good for food when fresh, but poor when salted. Mungo Bass is both smaller and much better fish ; -fat and fine flavoured as a salmon. Its exteriour is bright as an alewife, and is found in our interiour lakes ; one of them will weigh a pound.
Shiner.
The Shiner is very plenty in our fresh waters, where there are no pickerel :- also very small, being only about 4 or 5 inches in length, and weighing no more than 4 or 5 ounces. Its name is taken from the bright silver shining of its scales; and there are two or three varieties, one is like the minnow, another " the shad- shiner."
Chub.
The Chub has fins like a sucker ; is exceedingly well shapen, with a fan-tail, and its scales are as bright as polished silver. One of 5lbs. is 20 inches in length; it is eaten, though rather muddy and rank to the taste.
Bream.
The Bream is a scaled fresh water horn-back fish, five inches in length and of only 8 or 10 ounces in weight. The back is elliptical, crested with a back-fin, an inch and an half upwards ; is as good to the taste as the perch and less bony : it is found plentifully in our ponds and mill-streams. In May or June, each pair will sweep round and form in the sand, a cavity, one or two feet in diameter, and 6 or 8 inches in depth, within which they cast their spawn.
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Of Pickerel* we have only one species ; and of Pike, I am Pickerel. not informed, we have any in our waters.
The Pickerel is excellent for the table ; one of a middle size will weigh 3lbs. and measure more than 18 inches in length. Its back is black, its belly white, and its sides are clouded with black and yellow. This species of fish, which is plenty in the Kenne- bec waters, was first brought to Penobscot, A. D. 1819, and put into Davis' pond, in Eddington, where they have increased sur- prizingly : but they devour the white perch, which is of as much, or more value, and their emigration has not received much wel- come. Where they are plenty, they are speared and also caught with a hook.
The Poutt is found in almost all our fresh water ponds; it Pout. has nape-fins, on each of which are straight sharp horns an inch in length, which give great pain, when they perforate the flesh. The spawning season is in May, and the old one keeps the brood around her, as the hen does hers, and will as boldly fight for their safety. Pouts have five or six smellers, or feelers, jutting out from their under jaw, as large as wire and an inch in length ; such as the hake and sturgeon have below their gills. Pouts are skinned when cooked, and eatable when baked.
The Roach,t though rather scarce, is found in fresh ponds, is Roach. pleasant for food, and one may weigh from 6 to 20 ounces. It is shaped much like a chub, with sides, belly and fins of a red- dish tincture.
Of the Salmon kinds we have three species, viz. 1. the Salmon. Salmon, 2. Salmon Trout, and 3. Smelt.
The Salmon, a most excellent fish, is now or has been caught in the Saco, Androscoggin, Kennebec, Penobscot and Machias rivers, into which they ascend from the salt water, in the spring and summer months, to cast their spawn in October. They then stay till the next May, when they return with their young to the sea ; these are "the racers" so called. In the males is a sub- stance, as hard and white as clear pork newly killed, which is easily distinguishable from the spawn of the females; but the
* Esox lucius.
+ Silurus Felis.
į Rubellio Fluviatilis .- Has been called the " water-sheep for its simpli- city.
§ 1. Salmo Salar .- 2. Salmo Trutta .- 3. Salmo Eperlanus.
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peculiar fellowship or connexion at the time of spawning remains unsolved. The circular spawn-mounts, formed of sand, are from 4 to 6 feet in diameter and 12 inches in height ; and if any chub or other fish comes near, the Salmon will bite them to death and leave them. A Salmon weighs from 10 to 40 pounds.
Of this species, there are three varieties ; the black Salmon, which is the smallest; the hawkbill, which is the largest and lightest coloured ; and the smoothnosed, which is the fattest and best, with sides bright as an alewife.
Salmon Trout.
The Salmon Trout are found in all our larger lakes and ponds, and are excellent for food : they often weigh from 15 to 20 pounds each, though they differ in size and appearances; and are more slim and less fat than the salmon ; their sides are spotted with red and yellow.
Smelt.
The Smelt is a small salt and fresh water fish, from 4 to 8 inches in length, with brown back, light sides and belly, weighing 4 or 5 ounces ; they are caught in abundance, after March, in our rivers ; 20 barrels of them have been taken at the mouth of the Kenduskeag at a sweep, and sometimes they are worth no more than half a dollar by the bushel.
Shad.
We have no less than six, perhaps, seven species of the Shad tribe,* viz. 1. Shad, 2. Alewife, 3. Herring, 4. Hardhead, 5. Bret, and 6. Manhaden, and 7. Atherine.t
The Shad, taken in all our rivers,{ till their spring-runs were checked by dams, are too well known to require a particular de- scription. They are three years in coming to maturity, when they will weigh from 3 to 5 pounds. The Alewife is also very common.
Herrings.
Herrings§ are of various sizes, from 10 to 20 ounces in weight and are good for the table. They are scaled, finned and shaped like an alewife ; their backs are of a bright green, and their sides and bellies lighter. They are caught plentifully along our coast, especially about Herring-gut and eastward. They are the best
* 1. Clupea Aloso .- 2. Clupea Serrata .-- 3. Clupea Harengus .- 4. Clupea Dura Mystax .- 5. Clupea Minima ?- 6. Clupea Menida ?
t Atherine. Atherina, may belong to another family.
# On the 2d of May, 1794, at the mouth of the Kenduskeag, (of the Pe- nobscot,) were taken at one draft 1,000 shad and 30 barrels of alewives.
§ " Of all migrating fish the Herring and Pilchard take the most adven . turous voyages."
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of bait for codfish, and are so fat, before they spawn in August or September, that it is difficult to save them even with salt.
Hardhead
The Hardhead is shaped and finned like a shad, except that its head, which is smaller, looks like that of a perch. Its back is of a yellowish cast ; it will in general weigh from one to three pounds, and is very fine flavoured. The Hardhead are mostly taken in salt water, with nets and wares and sometimes with hooks ; though a few have been caught at the mouth of the Ken- duskeag and other fresh rivers.
Manhaden* are likewise found mostly in salt water, though Manhaden. they are seen sometimes as high up in rivers, as where the fresh and salt water mix. One's head is almost as large as that of a shad, and is equal in size and weight to one third part of the whole fish ; its length is from 8 to 12 inches; its weight from 1 to 2 pounds ; its appearance is like that of a shad, except that its head is larger, itself shorter ; its back is green, and its belly a light yellowish colour, like a hardhead. It is plentifully taken on our coast, and much used for bait to catch haddock, pollock, hal- ibut, and mackerel ; but too oily and strong for the table. This is, in grade, about the fourth family of fishes, put upon the table, and abundant in our waters.
Of the Squalid tribet we may mention three species. 1. the Squalid Shark ; 2. the Dogfish ; and 3. the Swordfish. genus.
The Shark, among fishermen, is called the " maneater," " the Shark. shovel-nose," and "the swingle-tail;" these being varieties of the species. The latter is caught in our bays, though not often. Its length is from 4 to 14 feet, half of which is tail, perpendicu- larly flat, like a sword, tapering from the draught, where it is about 16 inches in circumference, to the end, and where it is only an inch in diameter, turning or curving downwards. Its mouth, head, and body, are like those of a dogfish. One of common size will weigh 150 pounds; yet one was caught eastward of Metinicus, in 1811, which was supposed to weigh more than 500 pounds.
The Dogfish, found only in salt water, is about 3 or 4 feet in Dogfish. length and weighs about 20 or 25 pounds. It has a peaked nose, and from its end, 3 inches back, is its mouth, very small,
* Vulgarly called " pogeys.'
+ 1. Squalus Stellaris .- 2. Squalus Acanthias .- 3. Squalus Xiphias.
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resembling that of a sturgeon, but full of small sharp teeth with which it bites spitefully. Its back is not scaled, but so ex- ceedingly rough as to be used by cabinet-makers to smooth their boards : and to educe the proverb, "as rough as the skin of a Dogfish." But the great peculiarity of this fish consists in that of procreation. It never spawns, but the female has often in its belly an hundred eggs at one time, to which severally are attached a young one, in a state of greater or less maturity. Its eggs are from the bigness of a pea to that of a partridge's egg ; and when the young are cast from the dam, one at a time, it is slim and more than half a foot in length and if one be cut out before entire maturity, and thrown into the water, it has been known to swim off with the broken egg hanging by a string two inches in length.
Swordfish.
The Swordfish is not frequent, but has been seen off Mount Desert and other places, ten leagues at sea. Its whole length is about 8 or 10 feet; it has two fins on the back, which are apt to be out of the water, as it usually swims near the surface. Its sword, from the point of its nose, is two feet long and so hard that the fish can wield it through the hull of a vessel.
Sticklers.
Of the Sticklers* we have two species ;- 1. Skip-jack, and 2. Stickle-back.
Skip-jack.
The Skip-jack is a scaled small salt water fish, good to eat, weighing from 10 to 16 ounces, and shaped like a pumpkin seed. It is only about an inch through, measured horizontally ; while its perpendicular depth is from 4 to 6 inches, and three fourths as much as its length.
Stickle- back.
The body of the Stickle-back is broadest towards the tail ; the head is oblong, a fin covers the gills with three spines ; and prickles start backward, before the back fins and those of the draught.
Sturgeon.
The Sturgeont is commonly 6 or 8 feet in length and weighs from 20 to 30 pounds, though some have been caught which would weigh 200 pounds. It migrates from the salt water, during the spring, into almost all our rivers and returns in the autumn. It has a long head and prominent nose, beneath which it has a sucker-mouth without jaws or teeth. It has gills
* 1. Gasterosteus Solatrix .- 2. Gasterosteus Aculeatus.
+ Acipenser sturio.
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shaped exactly like an officer's epaulett ; and on its back to its tail, and on each side of the back, including the belly, there are in all, four rows of hard bony substances, pungent to the touch, like a grater. It frequently leaps from the rivers, to wash off the slime which gathers upon it in still water and hot weather.
The Sculpion* is common about the mouths and salt water Sculpion. harbours of our rivers-is fond of fish-offal and the refuse of ship-cookery. Its length is from 12 to 14 inches; its head is ugly and large, and its mouth opens like that of a monkfish. About its gills and head it has horns, sharp and short ; and near the gills it has also, on each side, two large wing-fins and a fin on the back, all which have horns half an inch in length, very sharp and poison- ous to the flesh : when caught it will bristle up and make a dull hostile humming. From the lower extremity of the body, it falls off in shape very abruptly, and thence to the end of the tail is small and cylindrical, this part being the only one ever eatable.
The Sunfisht is a large ugly looking creature, sometimes weigh- ing 300 pounds, but never eaten. It is 6 feet in length, 30 inches in diameter, and very solid. It is not scaled ; its exte- riour is rough as that of a dogfish and as thick as a sheepskin, beneath which is a substance all over the body, from one inch to an inch and an half in thickness, which is light, transparent and very elastic, so that when it is pared into balls, it will, on being thrust upon the floor, bound 40 or 50 feet. The oil of its liver is said to be good to cure the rheumatism.
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