46 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [4] 



3. An ideal fishway. 



If it be possible by auy i)ractical construction to deliver the whole 

 volume of a stream over a dam or other obstruction with such moderate 

 velocity that the weakest and least adventurous fish could readily swim 

 against it, we would practically destroy the obstruction, and would 

 ■establish for the migratory species a i)assage up to their spawning- 

 grounds as free and unrestrained as if no obstruction existed. In prac- 

 tice, of course, this ideal can be realized only in exceptional cases, for 

 industrial necessities, or considerations of cost, will necessarily limit the 

 dimensions of the fishway and the amount of water that may be dis- 

 charged through it; but just in proportion as we approxiumte this ideal 

 in our fishway constructions do we approach more nearly the solution 

 of the problem of free circulation of the anadromous fishes in Conti- 

 nental waters. 



When the commission of fisheries was inaugurated in the State'of 

 Virginia, in 1875, one of the most important questions presented to it 

 was how to make adequate provision to get the anadromous fish over 

 the innumerable dams that obstruct the main watercouises of the State 

 and all their tributaries. The white shad {Alosa sajndissima) is one of 

 the most important food-fishes in all the tributaries of the Chesapeake, 

 and in times past has furnished the motive of immense and ])rofitable 

 fisheries. The restoration and maintenance of this vahiable fishery was 

 one of the most serious questions presenting itself to the consideration 

 of the Commission. The James and the Rappahannock Rivers were 

 •obstructed at the head of tide hy insuperable dams, interposing efl'ect- 

 ual obstructions to the further upward migration of the anadromous 

 species. Years ago, before obstructions existed, the migration of the 

 shad in James River extended into the heart of the Alleghanies, two 

 hundred and fifty miles above tide-water, and in tlie Rai)pahannock to 

 the very base of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The curtailment of the 

 breeding area, by the erection of dams on bofh rivers, had determined 

 a corresponding reduction in the productive capacity of the streams, 

 and, in concurrence with the irrational and unrestrained methodsof fish- 

 ing pursued, had rendered franchises, once valuable, worthless, and in- 

 dustries, once profitable, precarious and unproductive. A fishway that 

 would freely pass shad up over these obstructions, aiul recover to pro- 

 duction the breeding area of water from which they had been excluded, 

 promised the means of restoring these most \'aluable fisheries. 



The gentlemen who were then commissioners of fisheries for the State 

 of Virginia were pleased to select me to visit the Centennial Exposition 

 at Philadel])hia, with instructions to make a careful study of the models 

 •of all the forins of fishways there exhibited, with the view of finding one 

 that would be adapted to our purpose. A careful study of all was made, 

 and 1 was reluctantly forced to the conclusion that none of them fulfilled 

 the necessary conditionsof successful operation, and 1 returned discour- 



