lie bl Bin, 
PACIFIC SALMON FISHERIES. 81 
southeast Alaska, the first having been installed in 1907. The design 
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 fastened. 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 anid webbing. 
The so-called wooden traps on the Columbia River are essentially 
weirs, being a modification of the brush weirs or traps used by the 
Indians for the capture of salmon long before the advent of the white 
men. They are built on shore, of piling and planks, the latter 
arranged like slats with spaces between. The bowl, 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 Collins,’ 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 $20,000 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. 
The location of sites for these nets is regulated by law in Oregon, 
Washington, and British Columbia, but in Alaska the procedure is 
a 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. 
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