82 PACIFIC SALMON FISHERIES. 
wall allowed to drop almost to the level of the water. A steam or 
gasoline tug then pushes a scow alongside the spiller and takes 
position on the outside of this scow. From the deck of the tug 
a derrick is rigged with a running line from the steam capstan 
through the block at the top of the derrick. This line is attached 
to the far end of a net apron, called a “brailer,” which is heavily 
weighted by having chains along each side and leaded crossways at 
several places. A small boat is run inside the spiller, and the men 
in this draw the brailer across the barge and let it sink in the spiller. 
The fish soon gather over it, when the steam capstan quickly reels 
it in, the net folding over as drawn in from its far side and spilling 
the fish out on the scow. Men on the scow pick out and throw 
overboard the unsalable and nonedible fish. The apron is then 
drawn back across the pot and the operation repeated so long as any 
fish remain. In this manner a trap with many tons of salmon in it 
is quickly emptied. 
Traps, like nearly all other fixed fishing appliances, are built on 
the knowledge that salmon, like most other fishes, have a tendency to 
follow a given course in the water, whether a natural shore line or 
an artificial obstruction resembling one; also that the fish very sel-— 
dom turns in its own wake. The trap has taken advantage of these 
natural tendencies of the fish, and is arranged so that, although the 
salmon may turn, he will continually be led by the wall of net toward 
and into the trap. 
If a trap is located in a place where fish play and where an eddy 
exists, and the fish run one way with the incoming tide and the 
opposite with the outgoing, it will fish from both directions; if 
located where the fish simply pass by, as, for instance, on a point or 
reef, it will fish from one side only. 
A variation of the trap, to be used in places where piles can not 
be driven, is the floating trap. An experimental trap of this variety . 
was used at Uganuk, on Kodiak Island, Alaska, as early as 1896. 
Its use was abandoned in 1897, not to be resumed until some years 
later. A number of floating traps (of the type invented by J. R. 
Heckman, of Ketchikan, Alaska) have been and are being used in 
southeast Alaska, the first having been installed in 1907. The de- 
sign of this trap follows the shape of an ordinary Puget Sound 
driven trap. It is constructed of logs, 20 to 26 inches at the butt, 
bolted and braced together in one solid frame. Suspended from this 
frame through the logs are 24-inch pipes extending down in the 
water 30 feet. Halfway down these pipes and also on the extreme 
lower ends are eyebolts, to which the web is drawn down and fas- 
tened. Thus the web is kept in place as well as if the pipes were 
driven piles. The lead is also a continuation of large piles or logs 
bolted firmly together with similarly suspended pipes and webbing. 
