PACIFIC SALMON FISHERIES. 83 
at right angles and discharged into a square box with slat bottom 
and covered over with boughs. The fish in ascending the stream 
would be stopped by the rack and in swimming around many of them 
would be carried by the current into and down the flume, eventually 
landing in the receiving box alongside the shore. 
WHEELS. 
Fish wheels are of two kinds, the floating or scow wheel, which 
can be moved from point to point if need be, and the shore wheel, 
which is a fixed apparatus. They operate in exactly the same man- 
ner, however. The stationary sa is located along the shore in a 
place where experience has shown that the salmon pass. Here an 
abutment is built of wood and stone, high enough to protect it from 
an ordinary rise in the river. To this is attached the necessary 
framework for holding the wheel. The latter is composed of three 
large scoop-shaped dip nets made of galvanized-iron wire netting 
with a mesh of 34 to 4 inches. These nets are the buckets of the 
wheel and they are so arranged on a horizontal axis that the wheel 
is kept in constant motion by the current, and thus picks up any 
fish which come within its sweep. The nets are fixed at such an 
angle that as they revolve their contents fall into a box chute through 
which the fish slide into a large bin on the shore. The wheels range 
in size from 9 to 32 feet in diameter and from 5 to 15 feet in width, 
and cost from $1,500 to $8,000, the average being about $4,000. A 
number of them have long leaders of piling running out into the 
river, which aid in leading the salmon into the range of the wheel. 
The scow wheel consists of a large square-ended scow that is 
usually decked at one end and open at the other. Several stanchions, 
some 8 to 10 feet high, support a framework upon which an awning 
is spread to protect the fish from the sun’s rays and the crew from 
the elements. To one end of the scow are fastened two upright posts, 
which are guyed by wooden supports, while projecting from the same 
end is the framework which supports the wheel, the latter being con- 
structed in the same way as the stationary wheel, but on a smaller 
scale. In operation the scow is anchored with the wheel end pointing 
downstream, and as the wheel is revolved by the current, the fish 
caught fall from the net into a box chute, through which they slide 
into the scow. As stationary wheels can be used only at certain 
stages of water, the scow wheel is a necessary substitute to be used 
at such times as the former can not be operated, or in places where 
it is not feasible to build a stationary wheel. 
arate above forms of wheels are used exclusively on the Columbia 
iver. 
An ingenious device is used by some of the wheel operators on the 
Columbia River in getting their catch to the canneries, a few miles 
farther down the river. The salmon are tied together in bunches, 
which are attached to air-tight casks and sent down the stream. At 
the canneries small balconies have been constructed at the water end 
of the building. A man armed with a pair of field glasses is stationed 
here, and as soon as he sights one of these casks he notifies a boatman 
who goes out and tows in the cask and salmon. About 800 pounds of 
salmon are attached to a keg, and a tag showing the wheel from 
which shipped, is tied to the fish. 
