248 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



trough-room sufficient for the developmeut of several millions of eggs. 

 The building aad all the fixtures were in order iu seasou for the recep- 

 tion of the spawn, the first of which was taken October 28. 



The prei)arations for taking spawn were the erection of a rough shed 

 by the side of the brook, some 200 feet below the dam, and the construc- 

 tion of a number of pens iu the brook at the same point. The pens had 

 board bottoms and sides, and the ends were of wooden gratings, through 

 which the water passed freely. They were to be used to confine the 

 salmon in while waiting to be manipulated and marked. A gate opened 

 from the upper pen into that portion of the brook lying between it 

 and the dam, and other gates opened from pen to pen, so that the salmon 

 could be driven from one to another. These were all of small dimen- 

 sions of course, and a dip-net only was required in taking salmon out 

 of them for manipulation. At the dam a small gate was made, nearly 

 as high as the surface of the pond, and the water that came through it 

 ran over a gently sloping floor about 12 feet long, with wide crevices iu 

 it, through which the water wasted, while a salmon coming into it would 

 slide down until left without water enough to swim iu, when it could 

 not do otherwise than roll off the lower end of the floor into the brook. 

 This arrangement would eflectually prevent salmon returning^ to the 

 pond after once coming into the brook; and being now enclosed above 

 and below, they could be driven into the pens with a small sweep-net 

 whenevtn' wanted. After the first season a long, narrow sluice was built 

 leading from the dam down to the spawning-shed, and iu this form the 

 premises are represented in the illustration. 



The sahnon having now the range of a pond of sixty acres, w^hich 

 would by the flowage of marshes be doubled in November, the task of 

 catching them again for spawning purposes was by no means so easy as it 

 would have been had they remained within the enclosure first made, 

 which contained only about four acres of surface, and which would have 

 kept them from straying more than forty rods from the brook, into which, 

 it was hoped, they would voluntarily run. It was therefore thought 

 necessary to rake sonu^ new measures for caxching them. 



First. A hedge, obtusely funnel-formed, was placed across the narrow 

 part of the pond a few rods above the dam, each arm of it resting on 

 the shore, its apex pierced by an opening occupying the center and point- 

 ing down toward the dam. Salmon swimming down the pond, on either 

 shore, would find one of the ends of the hedge crossing its path obliquely, 

 would follow it out to the apex, pass through the opening, and then be 

 "within an inclosure out of which there would be but two ways of egress — 



to keep them up from the bottom of tbe trongb, so tbat there might be a curreut of 

 water uuderueath, as well as above them. The troughs were not furuished with covers, 

 reliance beiug placed ou curtaius at tbe windows for protection against an excess of 

 light. 



After the close of the season the position of the troughs was changed ; they were cut 

 into shorter pieces, xdaced across the building, and fed from a long trough that trav- 

 ersed the room lengthwise. This is the arrangement represented in the plan. 



