Fishing is still an important industry along the coast of Maine. The catching and canning of young herring under the trade name of "sardines" is the chief product of the fisheries. The sardine production, in 1929, was 2,025,801 standard cases, worth $6,897,
this production being exceeded only by California. The lobster catch is second in importance to the sardine industry, its value being in excess of $2,000,000 per year. Other fishery products of commercial importance are : Cod, herring, haddock, clams, smelts, hake, sword-fish and mackerel.
In 1924 granite, lime, clay products and slate led. Maine ranks as one of the chief granite producing States in the Union, the annual value of the product being in excess of $2,000,000. Granite abounds all along the coast east of the Kennebec and on the adjacent islands, and is found farther inland, especially about the Rangeley lakes in Franklin and Oxford counties, and near Mt. Katandin in Penobscot and Piscataquis counties. The huge monolithic columns 51.5 to 54ft.
long and 6ft. in diameter for the cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York city were quarried on Vinalhaven island. Other min eral products with their value in 1925 were: Lime, 115,571 short tons, worth $1,291,812 ; clay products worth $625,969; slate worth $604,062; feldspar, 28,404 long tons, worth $256,731 ; and sand and gravel worth $155,014. The total mineral production of the State in 1925 was valued at $5,838,718. Maine has no coal, and has only a small amount of iron ore within her borders for the encouragement of manufacturing, yet the abundance of fine timber, the numerous coves, bays, navigable streams and water power sites have helped to overcome the handicap. Shipbuilding was the leading industry until about the middle of the 19th cen tury, when wooden ships began to be supplanted by ships of iron and steel. The first cotton mill was built at Brunswick, on the Androscoggin, about 1809; woollen mills followed ; and late in the century some of the largest paper and pulp mills in the Union were erected, which are run by water-power from the rivers. Maine had, in 1935, according to the census of manufactures, 1,223 industrial establishments, which gave employment to 69.764 wage-earners, and had a product worth
The seven leading industries were as follows : Paper, $53,499,799 ; woollen and worsted goods,
boots and shoes, $39,227,671; wood pulp, $22,759,007; cotton goods,
canned vegetables, $8,061,257; and lumber products, $6,165,544. There is still much undeveloped water-power; the U.S. Geological Sur vey credits Maine with a potential maximum of 1,139,00o horse power of which 536,000 are undeveloped.
The S.W. part of the State, with the manu facturing, the quarrying and much of the older agricultural dis trict, always has had fa:fly satisfactory means of transportation, either by water or by rail. The coast has many excellent harbours, the Kennebec river is navigable for coast vessels to Augusta, and the Penobscot to Bangor. It was not until the last decade of the 19th century that the forests, the farming lands and the summer resorts of Aroostook county were reached by a railway, the Bangor and Aroostook. The total railway mileage in 1935 was 2,011.
This shows a decrease of 284m. since 1920. The principal railway systems are the Maine Central, which enters every county but one, the Boston and Maine, the Bangor and Aroostook, the Canadian Pacific, the Canadian National and the Sandy river and Rangeley lakes. Lines of steamboats ply regularly between the largest cities of the State and Boston, between Portland and New York, and between Portland and several Canadian ports. According to the report of the Public Utilities Commission, in 1936 there were 8 electric railway companies and 13 steamboat companies within the State. The State highway system at the end of 1935 consisted of 8,o6oin., 6,639 of the total being surfaced. During the year 1936, 48.2m. of new surfacing were placed.
Historical scholars are not agreed upon the date at which a history of Maine should begin. If the accounts of explorations by Norsemen be taken into consideration, it is possible that Maine was first sighted by these hardy seamen and explorers about A.D. 1000, when, it is supposed, Leif Ericsson dis covered Vinland. The lack of any definite evidence of their ex plorations passes the credit of discovering Maine to others. John Cabot, while on his second voyage to the New World in 1498, probably saw the rugged coast of Maine. During the 16th century and the early part of the 17th the coast of Maine attracted various explorers, among them Giovanni da Verrazano (1524) ; Esteban Gomez (1525) ; Simon Ferdinando (1597); John Walker (1598) ; Bartholomew Gosnold and Bartholomew Gilbert (1602); Martin Pring (1603) ; Pierre du Guast ; Sieur de Monts (1604); George Weymouth (1605) ; and John Smith (1614), who explored and mapped the coast and gave to the country the name New England. Gosnold and Gilbert had brought a small band of colonists with them in 1602 but made no attempt at colonization, because of the many savages seen along the shore. In 1603 De Monts received from Henry IV. of France a charter for all the region between 40° and 46° N., or a territory extending from about the present city of Philadelphia to Newfoundland, under the name of Acadie or Acadia, and in 1604 he built a fort on Neu tral or St. Croix island at the mouth of the St. Croix river. A severe winter and scurvy reduced the colony by almost half before spring; when relief came it was decided to remove to Port Royal. In 1605 George Weymouth explored the south-west coast, kid napped five Indians and carried them to England, where three of them lived for a time in the family of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who soon became the leader in founding Maine. In 1607 the Plymouth company, of which he was an influential member, and which had received a grant of this region from James I. of Eng land in the preceding year, sent out a colony numbering I 20 under George Popham (c. 1550-1608), brother of Sir John Popham, and Raleigh Gilbert, son of Sir Humphrey Gilbert. The colony estab lished itself at the mouth of the Kennebec river in August, but, finding its supplies insufficient, about three-fifths of its number returned to England in December. Popham died during the winter and Gilbert presided over the council.