476 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



pools. These are the favorite hiding places and winter quarters of the 

 fish, as the aquatic plants grow in profusion in quiet water, supplying 

 ample nourishment for insect life, and quantities of food are usually 

 brought together in such places by the currents. Wherever there are 

 no such pools they can easily be made artificially, for which purpose 

 cross-dikes are constructed in the bed of the stream, at a distance of 

 one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet, and strengthened by sod, 

 sand, and stones. Below these dikes holes are dug, three to five feel 

 dee]) and six to seven feet long, in each of which are placed some large 

 and several small stones, or flagstones. The fish are thus provided 

 with suitable hiding places, and fish thieves are foiled in their endeav- 

 ors to catch trout with nets. As these dikes produce small waterfalls, 

 the pools are increased by every high water, if proper care is only taken 

 that the floods do not carry the dikes away. They should extend sev- 

 eral feet on the bank, so as to prevent the water from flowing past them ; 

 and then the soil carried along by the stream will continually make the 

 dikes stronger and stronger. 



In our age, when it is often so exceedingly difficult for a man to make 

 a living, it is absolutely necessary for the farmer and landed proprietor 

 to husband his resources, and to derive the greatest possible benefit 

 from his property. A stream or a pond, unless used for purposes of 

 irrigation, was formerly considered almost like dead capital, and at- 

 tempts were even made to lay it dry, with the view of using the land 

 thus gained to greater advantage. In our days no lauded proprietor 

 should be found guilty of such folly. By utilizing such waters for 

 pisciculture, the first expenses of which are, as a general rule, very 

 slight, a tenfold greater profit can be realized than by laying them dry 

 and using them for agricultural purposes. In nearly every part of our 

 country there are thousands of such ponds and streams which at pres- 

 ent are entirely useless, but which if stocked with fine food-fish would 

 become a rich source of income to their owners. Of all the various 

 branches of pisciculture, trout culture is certainly the easiest and most 

 profitable, and all persons who are in any way in a condition to carry 

 on this business should give all possible attention to it. 



1.TO.-SCARCITV OF SAMflON IN THE UTTLK SPOKANE AND OTHER 

 STREAMS ON THE PACIFIC COAST. 



By LIVINGSTON STONE. 



[ From a letter to Prof. S. F. Baird.] 



It looks as if this year would prove a poor one for salmon at the 

 Spokane River as well as MeOloud River. A letter from Lane C. Gil- 

 liam, of Spokane Falls, Wash., dated September 17, 1883, says : "1 have 

 just completed my second trip to Little Spokane, and as yet no salmon 

 to speak of are running. The Indians, who are encamped here in great 



