84 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



In 190S tlio first fisli wheel to be located in the coastal waters of 

 Alaska was operated in the Taku River, in southeast Alaska. The 

 wheel was sot between two 4-foot scows, stationed parallel to each 

 other, and each 40 feet in length. The wheel had two dips, each 22 

 feet in \\adth and huns; with netting. It could be moved from place to 

 place, the same as the scow wheels on the Columbia River. It was 

 operated throughout the king and red salmon runs, but caught almost 

 no salmon, and was not set in the succeeding years. 



For many years the natives of tlio interior of Alaska have been 

 resorting to the banks of the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers and their 

 tributaries in order to secure a sufficient supply of salmon to sustain 

 them through the succeeding winter. The favorite apparatus of these 

 natives at present is a type of fish wheel introducecl by the whites 

 about 1905. An oblong framework of timbers is constructed in the 

 water and moored to the bank by ropes. A wheel, composed of two 

 or three dips, is placed in this, the axle resting upon the framework. 

 The current catches each dip in turn, thus causing the wheel to 

 revolve, and the dip is of such shape that the salmon caught roll off 

 it into a trough, down which they slide into a boat moored between 

 the wheel and the shore or into a box fixed to the supporting frame- 

 work on the side. Although crude in construction, these wheels are 

 very effective and a large number of them are set each season. 



'The Columbia River fish wheel is a patented device. It was first 

 used by the patentees, S. W. Williams & Bro., in 1879, and for 

 several years they retained a monopoly in its use. A number are 

 now operating on the river. The device was not new even when 

 patented, as a similar "fishing machine," as it is called, had been in 

 use prior to this time and is still used by white fishermen on the 

 Roanoke River in North Carolina. 



REEF NETS. 



When the whites first visited the Northwest they found the natives 

 employing a number of ingenious devices for catching salmon, and 

 one of the most effective of these was the roof net. J. A. Kerr, Esq.,*^ 

 who has been engaged in the salmon fisheries of Pugot Sound for a 

 number of years, has written the following very interesting account 

 of this native fishery: 



The aborigines the world over have developed ingenuity solely along the lines of 

 their necessities. The coast Indians of Alaska evolved the bidarky and the ingenious 

 implements for taking the seal, the walrus, and the whale. The Siwash of Puget 

 Sound developed a seaworthy dugout and appliances for taking salmon that marks 

 the acme of Indian invention. 



\\Tien Vancouver explored the waters of the Sound he found over 500 Indians en- 

 camped at Ohiltenum, now Point Roberts. He relates in his log of the voyage that 

 these Indians were engaged "in fishing for salmon with crude nets made of the bark of 

 young willow." He described the racks upon the contiguous upland used by the 

 Indians in curing the fish. 



\Vlien Gov. Stevens negotiated the treaty with the Indians of the lower Sound at 

 Point Elliott, now Mukilteo, in 1855, I was informed by Col. Shaw, the interpreter, 

 that over 7,000 Indians attended, the session lasting for five days. 



The Government sought to ha^■e the Indians confined to reservations, and the dis- 

 position of their ancient fisheries was a matter of great solicitude on their part. 

 Salmon was the principal article of their diet. 



After protracted discussion the sixth clause of the treaty was made to provide 

 that "the right to take fish at their usual and accustomed fishing grounds, together 

 with the right to erect and maintain racks upon the contiguous upland for curing and 

 drjing the same, is hereby forever guaranteed to said Indians. "' 



o The Siwash Reef Net. By J. A. Kerr. Pacific Fisherman Yearbook, 1917, p. 60. 



