SALMON FISHERIES OF PACIFIC COAST. 31 



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, but on a smaller scale, than the stationary 

 wheel. In operation the scow is anchored with the wheel end point- 

 ing 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. 



The above forms of wheels are used exclusively on the Columbia 

 River. 



An ingenious device is used by some of the wheelmen 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 and 

 these 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. 



In 1908 the first fish wheel to be located in the coastal waters of 

 Alaska was operated in the Taku River, in southeast Alaska. The 

 wheel was set between two 4-foot scows, stationed parallel to each 

 other, and each 40 feet in length. The wheel had two dips, each 22 

 feet in width and hung with netting. It could be moved from place to 

 place, the same as the scow wheels on the Columbia River. It was 

 operated throughout the king and red salmon runs, but caught almost 

 no salmon, and was not set in the succeeding years. 



For many years the natives of the interior of Alaska have been 

 resorting to the banks of the Yukon River and its tributaries in order 

 to secure a sufficient supply of salmon to sustain them through the 

 succeeding winter. The favorite apparatus of these natives is a type 

 of fish wheel of local invention, which has been in use by them for 

 many years, probably long before the white man first saw the Yukon. 

 A square framework of timbers is constructed in the water and 

 moored to the bank by ropes. A wheel, composed of three dips, is 

 placed in this, the axle resting upon the framework. The shape of 

 the dip is such that the salmon caught roll oif it into a trough, down 

 which they slide into a boat moored between the wheel and the shore. 

 Although crude in construction, it is very effective and a large num- 

 ber of them are set each season. 

 • 59395°— 11 29 



