fishery, so far as known, shows that it gradually worked to the eastward. This was doubtless owing to the fact that the trend of settlement in the early part of the century was in that direction. It is also probable that, for some time before the people along the coast took up the fishery, the smackmen themselves did their own fishing. This is easily believed when the great abundance is considered. It is known that this was done in Massachusetts.

During summer the lobsters were very common close in shore and could easily be gaffed by boys at low water; but this could hardly be called a regular fishery.

The regular fishery began with the use of hoop-net pots, which were generally of very rude construction, and the facility with which the lobsters escaped from them led to their disuse soon after the lath pots began to be introduced. The lath pots were essentially the same in construction as those now used on the coast of Maine, and each pair of fishermen then handled between 25 and 50.

Up to about 1865 it was the custom to set the traps singly, and two men were usually employed in the fishery, one to haul up, empty the pot, rebait it, and drop it overboard, while the other handled the boat. In the latter year it was discovered that by setting the pots on trawls more pots could be set and only one man would be required to work them. This invention, which was claimed by several different persons, proved quite successful for a while, but after a time, when the supply of lobsters began to drop off, better results were secured by scattering the pots over a greater area and shifting their position each time they were fished, which was very easily done. As a result of this the use of trawls decreased very rapidly.

The following facts regarding the early lobster fishery of Maine are from the Fishery Industries of the United States, section v, vol. II, pp. 700, 701:

In 1841 Capt. E. M. Oakes began to carry lobsters from Cundy's Harbor and Horse Island Harbor, Harpswell, to Mr. Eben Weeks, at East Boston. He was then running a well-smack, named the Swampscott, of 41 tons, old measurement. The season extended from the 1st of March until about the 4th of July, after which time the lobsters were supposed to be unfit for eating; the black lobsters, or shedders, were even considered poisonous. During this season of four months Captain Oakes made ten trips, carrying in all 35,000, by count. He continued in this trade about six years, taking the combined catch of about five or six fishermen. At this same period the smack Hulda B. Hall, 50 tons, of New London, Conn., Captain Chapell, was carrying lobsters from Cape Porpoise, Gloucester, Ipswich Bay, and occasionally Provincetown, to Boston, making 15 trips in the season of four months, and taking about 3,500 lobsters each trip. Captain Chapell was supplied with lobsters by four men at Cape Porpoise, and by the same number at both Gloucester and Ipswich Bay. For four months following the close of the lobster season on the Maine coast, or from July 4 until November, Captain Chapell ran his smack with lobsters to New York, obtaining most of his supplies at Provincetown.

In 1847 Captain Oakes purchased the smack Josephine, with which he began running to Johnson & Young's establishment, at Boston, in 1848, buying a portion of his lobsters in the Penobscot Bay region, where this fishery had just been started. The quantity of lobsters carried by him that year was 40,000. The prices paid to the fishermen for smack lobsters was as follows: During March, 3 cents each; April, 2½ cents; May and June, 2 cents. In 1850, he began to obtain supplies from the Muscle Ridges, leaving Harpswell entirely, on account of the small size of the lobsters then being caught there. At this time the average weight of the lobsters marketed was about 3 pounds, and all under 10½ inches in length were rejected. The traps were made of the same size as at present, but were constructed of round oak sticks, and with four hoops or bows to support the upper framework. A string of bait, consisting mainly of flounders and sculpins, was tied into each trap. About 50 traps were used by each fisherman, and they were hauled once a day. The warps or buoy lines, by which the traps were lowered and hauled, were cut in 12-fathom lengths. Lobsters were so abundant at the Muscle Ridges, at this period, that four men could fully supply Captain Oakes with lobsters every trip. In the course of ten days each man would obtain between 1,200 and 1,500 marketable lobsters. In Captain Oakes' opinion, the Muscle Ridges have furnished the most extensive lobster fishery of the Maine coast. He ran to this locality until 1874.

Capt. S. S. Davis, of South Saint George, states that about 1864, when he first began buying lobsters at the Muscle Ridges, three men, tending 40 to 50 pots each, caught all the count lobsters he could carry to market in his smack. He could load 5,000 lobsters at a time, and averaged a trip in 7 to 9 days. This traffic continued for six or seven years. In 1879, Captain Davis bought from 15 men In the same locality, and at times was obliged to buy also of others in order to make up a load.

The fishery at North Haven began in 1848, but did not increase so rapidly at first as in sections farther west, as the smacks would only take the medium-sized lobsters, fearing that the largest would not be able to stand the trip. At Matinicus Island the fishing began in 1868. In 1852 the people on Deer Island began the fishery, and as the smackmen made frequent visits the business rapidly increased. The establishment of a cannery at Oceanville, about 1860, also caused a considerable development of the fishery. The fishery was started at Isle an Haute about 1855, and at Swan Island in the early fifties.

The canning of lobsters was first carried on at Eastport in 1842, but the fishery was not taken up until about 1853, as it was supposed there were no lobsters in the neighborhood. The supplies for these canneries previous to the inception of the fishery were obtained by smacks running to the westward.

For some years the fishery was only prosecuted in the late spring, summer, and early fall months. Just when winter fishing began in the State is doubtful; but according to Capt. Charles Black, of Orr Island, it began in that region in 1845 at Harpswell. Previously the fishermen had the impression that lobsters could not be successfully caught earlier than March 20.

During the summer of 1845 the captains of the well-smacks of New London, Conn., who bought most of the lobsters in that vicinity, induced Charles E. Clay, Samuel Orr, and a few others to fish during the winter, and they set their traps about the same distance from the shore that the fishermen do at present, and in almost the same depth of water. The smackmen paid them $4 for 100 lobsters. The next winter the fishermen refused to sell by number and wanted $1.25 per 100 pounds. The smackmen had no objection to buy them by weight, but refused to pay more than $1.12 per 100 pounds. This was accepted, and for several years the prices were from $1.12 to $1.25 per 100 pounds.

Comparatively few traps were necessary then, as when the weather would permit the fishermen to tend their traps they would catch from 20 to 30 lobsters daily, and frequently, when the traps were hauled, they would find several lobsters clinging to some part of the pots. The bait was very plentiful and caught with spears.

The lobsters were placed in cars at that time, after having been "plugged" to keep them from injuring each other. The plugs were almost 1½ inches long, flat on one side, round on the other, and with a sharp point. Plugging has since been discontinued, as the trifling injury the lobsters did each other was nothing compared to the value of cans of meat spoiled by one of these pine plugs being boiled with it.