46 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [4] 



3. An ideal fish way. 



If it be possible by any practical coustructiou to deliver the N\bole 

 volume of a stream over a dam or other obstruction with such moderate 

 velocity that the weakest and least adventurous fish could readily swim 

 against it, we would practically destroy the obstruction, and would 

 -establish for the migratory species a passage up to their spawning- 

 grounds as free and unrestrained as if no obstruction existed. In prac- 

 tice, of course, this ideal can be realized only in exceptional cases, for 

 industrial necessities, or considerations of cost, will necessarily limit the 

 dimensions of the fishwaj' and the amount of water that may be dis- 

 charged through it; but just in i>roportion as we approximate this ideal 

 in our fish way constructions do we approach more nearly the solution 

 •of the problem of free circulation of the anadromous fishes in Conti- 

 nental waters. 



When the commission of fisheries was inaugurated in the State of 

 Virginia, in 1875, one of the most important questions presented to it 

 was how to make adequate provision to get the anadromous fish over 

 the innumerable dams that obstruct the main water-courses of the State 

 and all their tributaries. The white shad (Alosa sapidissima) is one of 

 the most important food-fishes in all the tributaries of the Chesapeake, 

 and in times past has furnished the motive of immense and profitable 

 fisheries. The restoration and maintenance of this valuable fishery was 

 one of the most serious questions presenting itself to the consideration 

 of the Commission. The James and the Rapi)ahannock Rivers were 

 obstructed at the head of tide by insuperable dams, interposing effect- 

 ual obstructions to the further upward migration of the anadromous 

 species. Years ago, before obstructions existed, the migration of the 

 shad in James River extended into the heart of the Alleghanies, two 

 hutidred and fifty miles above tide- water, and in the Rappahannock to 

 the very base of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The curtailment of the 

 breeding area, by the erection of dams on bofh rivers, had determined 

 a corresponding reduction in the jiroductive capacity of the streams, 

 and, in concurrence with the irrational and unrestrained methods of fish- 

 ing pursued, had rendered franchises, once valuable, worthless, and in- 

 dustries, once profitable, precarious and unproductive. A fishway that 

 would freely pass shad up over these obstructions, and recover to pro- 

 duction the breeding area of water from which they had been excluded, 

 promised the means of restoring these most valuable fisheries. 



The gentlemen who were then commissioners of fisheries for the State 

 of Virginia were pleased to select me to visit the Centennial Exposition 

 at Philadelphia, with instructions to make a careful study of the models 

 of all the forms of fish ways there exhibited, with the view of finding one 

 that would be adapted to our purpose. A careful study of all was made, 

 and 1 was reluctantly forced to the conclusion that none of them fulfilled 

 the necessary conditions of successful operation, and I returned discour- 



