516 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [50] 



from os<'a])iiig- through the exit-pipes into the outside pit, wheuever the 

 tap has been drawu and the pond is heing drained. In small ponds it 

 will be suflicient to surround these contrivances on three, and sometimes 

 on four, sides with grates ; or even omitting these, to place simply a stand- 

 ing net in front of them during the fishing season. This, however, will 

 be advisable only when a very short tap is used. Formerly the entire 

 contrivance was sheltered by a roof, and has from this circuuistance re- 

 tained its name, " tap-house." If this tap-house is placed far out in the 

 ])ond, it is connected with the dike by long boards which answer the 

 ])uri)ose of a bridge. Of late years the taphouses in large jtonds have 

 been built oi" stone and masonry. Horak says, regarding the advan- 

 tages and disadvantages of such tap-houses, as compared with wooden 

 ones : 



•'On the Wittingau estate a beginning with stone taphouses was 

 made in 1831; and since that time the old wooden tap-houses are, in- 

 stead of being repaired after the spring floods at a great expense, re- 

 idaced by new and solid ones built of stone. They are not only to ho 

 prefeired because there is a saving of lumber, but also because they 

 oifer many other advantages. In the first place they are better able to 

 resist the winter storms, and the floods and ice of si)riiig, and they very 

 seldom need repairs ; the outlet i)ipes are not placed upright, but iu- 

 (ilincd at an angle of 40 degrees, and are protected by a solid stone cov- 

 ering. In the old Mooden tai)-houses the front was occupied ])y a grate; 

 that portion of it which was uuder the water could, of course, easily 

 resist any hurtliil influences, while the portion above the surface, owing 

 to the changes in the weather, would soon decay, and frequently be de- 

 stroyed by the waves and by masses of ice pressing against it, which of 

 course would cause the lish to escai)e into the tap-houses, and thence 

 into the outside i)it. It is now customary in stone tap-houses to have 

 the grates entirely under the water; these grates resemble s(piare 

 cages, which, back of the scarf of the wall, are inserted iu the bottom 

 of the pond, and can be seen only when the ])ond is entirely drained. 

 It cannot be denied, however, that stone tai)-houses also have their 

 disadvantages. As these stone tap-houses require the tap-pole to be in 

 a vertical position, it will be necessary, in building a tap-house, to drive 

 a shaft in the scar]) of the dike down to tlie pipes, and there make an 

 opening to admit the taji. The entire structure becomes moi^e erect, is 

 moved (closer to the terrace of the dam, and is connected with it iu 

 such a manner that the new tap-house only forms a sort of projection 

 on this terrace. 



''Among the disadvantages of stone tap-houses we nuist also mention 

 the following : During very cold weather the tap-poles will freeze in 

 the water, and as there is no ])ossibility, as in the old wooden tap-houses, | 

 to get at the o])ening of the pijx', it will be necessary, whenever water! 

 is to be drained off during the winter, to heat the lower wall near the' 

 opening in the pipe, until the ice nielts and the tap can be drawn. Ironi 



