1072 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [10] 



could have saved the eggs except by their aid. They worked splendidly, 

 most of them from eleven o'clock in the morning, when the wheel 

 broke down, until four o'clock the next morning, when it was started 

 again — seventeen hours of continuous work, with two very short in- 

 terruptions, when I allowed them, ihree at a time, to run to the house 

 to get something to eat. During all this seventeen hours some of them 

 were carrying buckets of water that weighed sixty or seventy pounds 

 each. They did not work as if they were working merely for pay ; but 

 they worked with genuine enthusiasm. They kept in good spirits, too, 

 till an hour or two after midnight. But about two or three o'clock in 

 the morning it was evident that it was all they could do to keep at it. 

 I do not think they could have held out much longer. I have seen 

 white men look as tired as they did, but I never saw such a tired look 

 on Indians' faces before as there was on the faces of those red heroes 

 who saved our salmon eggs. When it is remembered that we consider 

 10,000 gallons of water an liour necessary to keep all the eggs in good 

 condition, an idea ma>y be formed of the labor that was involved in 

 bringing the water to the eggs. 1 must not forget to say here that the 

 white men worked as heroically as the Indians, though their work was 

 not as exhausting, and I must especially mention Mr. J. B. Campbell, 

 who took charge of repairing the wheel, and who worked with all his 

 might from the time it broke till it w-as fully repaired. At four o'clock 

 in the morning the wheel was again making its accustomed revolutions 

 and raising the regular current of water to the hatching house. When 

 this had been accomplished the rest of us, leaving one man to watch 

 the wheel till breakfast time, retired to sleep the remainder of the night. 



Before leaving the subject of the accident to the wheel, I will mention 

 a contrivance which we adopted for furnishing water to the eggs, which, 

 though very simple, saved an enormous amount of labor and is strongly 

 recommended for any hatching house that may be unfortunate enough 

 to have its water supply cut off for any length of time. 



The device was as follows: A long, large, receiving tank was placed 

 under the outlet of the hatching troughs so as to catch and hold the 

 water that flowed from them. In addition to this, a line of raised spouts 

 was erected from the outlet end of the hatching house to the filtering 

 tank at the other end, sufficiently elevated to deliver into the filtering 

 tank the water that was poured in at the other end. Several men then 

 went to work at the outlet end of the house to dip the water up in buckets 

 from the receiving tank and to pour it into the head of the elevated line 

 of spouts. The water so dipped up flowed down the line of spouts into 

 the filtering tank, and thence over the eggs again into the receiving 

 tank. 



In this way a constant circulation was kept up through the hatch- 

 ing troughs by the small stationary force of men dipping and pouring 

 at the elevated spout. This, with the water that was also being brought 

 from the river, formed an adequate supply, and the eggs were kept in. 



