KISIIEKIES, GAME AM) lURESTS. 137 



In this connection, it is again urged that means be provided to open the upper 

 Hudson Ri\er to the sahnon by building fishways in the dams and o\er the falls 

 between Troy and Luzerne. Already two fishways are in operation at IMechanicville 

 and Thomson's Mills, but above and below these points obstructions exist. With the 

 present method of fishway building, these passages for fish may be built without 

 injury to the dams. The building of fishways will also aid materially in keeping up 

 the stock of shad, as the young shad may then be planted farther up stream where 

 they will find good jiasturage, comparatively free from predaceous fish, and the fish- 

 ways will enable the adult fish to return to points higher up stream than they do at 

 present, as has been demonstrated by the building of fishways in the Delaware River, 

 which opened seventy-five miles of the upper river to the shad, where they were not 

 known after the dams were erected until the fishways were constructed. 



All acts heretofore passed for the erection of fishways have provided that they 

 shall be erected ami maintained by the Superintendent of Public Works, under the 

 direction of this Hoard, but no pro\ision has been made for funds to keep them in 

 repair, and as a consequence in a few years they become dilapidated and fail of their 

 purpose. The State now has a number of fishways costing thousands of dollars, and it 

 will require but a small sum annually to keep them in perfect repair so that fish can 

 pass through them, as was intended when they were constructed. 



Fish of all kinds are spawn eaters to a greater or less extent, but the eel is more 

 destructive of spawn than any other fish, as it does not spawn in fresh water and is 

 ready to prey upon both the fall and spring spawning fishes. 



At night, when the lake trout are spawning on a shoal in mid-lake, the eels are 

 present in \ast numbers to eat the spawn as fast as it is deposited by the trout. 

 Section 143 of the Game Law provides that "eel-pots of a form and character such as 

 may be prescribed b\" the Commissioners of Fisheries may be used in any waters not 

 inhabited b\- trout, lake trout, salmon trout or land-locked salmon." We would ask 

 that this Commission have power to use or authorize the use of eel-pots in all waters, 

 whether inhabited by trout or not, for it is in trout waters particularly that eels are 

 proving destructive to young fish. 



Already, this Commission has begun a vigorous policy of stocking the waters of 

 the State with fish food, for without proper food the fish will not thrive, no matter how 

 or where they ma\- be planted, and in our last report we endeavored to show how the 

 people may materially assist the Commission in its work of intelligently stocking or 

 restocking our lakes, ponds and streams by determining what the waters contain in 

 the way of food. 



It is impossible, without extended investigation, for the Commission to aquaint 

 itself with the food and temperature conditions of all State waters, but it is within the 



