PACIFIC SALMON FISHERIES 483 



arranged like slats with spaces between. The l)()wl, or pot, is pro- 

 vided with a movable trapdoor that can be opened during the closed 

 season and on Sundays, so that the fish can pass through and run 

 upstream. These weirs, after being built, are launched into the 

 river, placed in proper position near the shore, and then ballasted 

 so that they sink to the bottom. 



According to Collins,^'* "pound nets were introduced on the Colum- 

 bia River in 1879. In May of that year O. P. Graham, formerly of 

 Green Bay, Wis., built a pound net on the river similar to those used 

 on the Great Lakes. The success of this venture led to the employ- 

 ment of more apparatus of this kind, and many fishermen went 

 west to participate in the fishery." 



The first trap on Puget Sound, it is said, was built by John Waller, 

 about 1880, off Cannery Point, at the southeastern corner of Point 

 Roberts. 



According to CoUins,^^ H. B. Kirby, who had previously fished on 

 the Great Lakes, set a pound net in Puget Sound about 1883, but it 

 was a complete failure. This was set off Point Roberts, near where 

 the Waller trap was set. On March 15, 1888, he again set a pound 

 net, which he had designed to meet the new conditions, at Birch Bay 

 Head, in the Gulf of Georgia. It proved a complete success, and 

 was the forerunner of the present large number which are set annually 

 in these waters. 



In Alaska the first trap was set in Cook Inlet about 1885. British 

 Columbia refused to permit the use of pound nets in its waters until 

 1904, when their use was allowed within certain limited regions. 



Some of these traps, especially on Puget Sound, have proved 

 extremely valuable. The years 1898 and 1899 covered practically 

 the high-water mark, as several desirable locations changed hands in 

 those years at prices ranging from S20,000 to $90,000 for single 

 traps, the original expense of which did not exceed $5,000. But 

 few have brought such high prices since, however, owing to the decline 

 in the run of salmon, and at the present time but few of them would 

 fetch much at a sale. 



INDIAN TRAPS 



The natives, especially in Alaska, have various ingenious methods 

 of catching salmon. In the Bering Sea rivers they catch them by 

 means of wickerwork traps, made somewhat after the general style 

 of a fyke net. These are composed of a series of cylindrical and 

 conical baskets, fitting into each other, with a small opening in the 

 end connecting one with the other and the series terminating in a 

 tube with a removable bottom, through which the captive fish are 

 extracted. Some of the baskets are from 15 to 25 feet in length and 

 are secured with stakes driven into the river bottom, while the leader, 

 composed of square sections of wickerwork, is held in place by stakes. 



During the summer of 1910 the author found and destroyed an 

 ingenious native trap set in Tamgas stream, Annette Island, southeast 

 Alaska. This stream is a short and narrow one, draining a lake, 

 about midway of which are a succession of cascades. In the narrow- 

 est part of the latter, and in the part up which the fish swim, a rack 

 had been constructed of poles driven into the bottom and covered 



" Report on the Fisheries of the Pacific Coast of the United States. By J. W. Collins. Report, U. S. 

 Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, 1888-89, p. 210. Washington. 1892. 

 " Collins: Op. cit., p. 257. 



