The Lobster Fishery of Maine

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