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practical building of one. From study of working models 

 I am satisfied that the McDonald fishway is the easiest of 

 ascent of any. I have seen a model of a catamaran actually 

 go up one by the force of the side currents, while the water 

 in the middle of the fishway was a turbulent rapid, grad- 

 ually working down, but checked at every foot into a sem- 

 blance of a mountain torrent. 



I think, and so said in print, a dozen years ago, that fish 

 will find the entrance to a fishway with greater certainty 

 if it is at the foot of the dam, instead of below it, and 

 would, therefore, advocate the building of fishways above 

 dams, if possible to do so. 



Mechanicville. — The dam at this place is nine miles above 

 the Troy dam, and the water between them is a splendid 

 series of salmon pools and rapids. It was at the foot of 

 this dam that several salmon were seen jumping, by a Mr. 

 Greene, residing there, and where a twelve pound salmon 

 (not elsewhere reported) was found dead by George Baxter. 

 The bed of the river here, as well as above and below, is 

 a slate formation. The dam is 15 feet high, built of stone 

 laid in cement. I looked the dam over, in company with 

 Commissioner Henry Burden, and settled on a place where 

 the fishway could be placed. Later, Mr. Burden, in com- 

 pany with Mr. Blaisdell, President of the McDonald Fish- 

 way Company, visited the dam, and wrote me as follows : — 



Troy, N. Y., August i8th, 1888. 

 Mr. Fred Mather;— 



We found a new place to locate a fishway in the Me- 

 chanicville dam, and that is alongside of the stone wall form- 

 ing the canal from which the mill wheels take water. The 

 gates at the head of this canal are always open, so that fish 

 could get through to the river above. If there is no pollution 

 in this canal I think a fishway could be built as cheap, if not 

 cheaper than the one at Troy. It would be out of the way of 

 ice, and would not cut into the main dam. 



Sincerely yours, Henry Burden. 



