Prince. — A Perfect Fish Pass 49 



MOST FISH PASSES HAVE FAILED. 



In common with my brethren in the national fishery 

 services of the various countries in which we Hve, I have 

 given much attention for many years to this subject, 

 and what is the conclusion to which I have been com- 

 pelled to come? I may state it by saying that a few days 

 ago I remarked to one of the most eminent fishery 

 authorities on this continent that "mill dams had done 

 more harm than any other injurious cause," and I added 

 "my reply to you if you put the question" — Is there a 

 fish pass or fish ladder known to you which is a complete 

 success in enabling large quantities of fish to ascend?" — 

 my reply, I say, would be "I do not know of such a fish 

 pass." And my distinguished friend, a man of very vast 

 experience, said, "Well, Professor Prince, if you asked 

 me do I know of a fish pass completely successful in 

 enabling fish to ascend over obstructions such as mill 

 dams, I would say, 'I do not know of such a fish pass.' 

 My friend fully confirmed my own serious conclusions 

 and I need hardly say that I speak from a very unusual 

 experience, for I have examined numerous fish passes or 

 fish ladders in various countries — in the British Islands, 

 where immense sums of money have been expended by 

 wealthy noblemen and other private owners of salmon 

 rivers, in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales; and no 

 man knows better than I do the salmon rivers of North 

 America, both on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Can- 

 ada and the United States, and even where some success 

 has been achieved as in the massive structures of mason- 

 ry and concrete in Britain, the result is not equal to 

 reasonable expectations. Rigorous tests made have 

 shown that fish passes are, in general, a sad failure. One 

 I know in Quebec Province cost $15,000 and never a 

 single fish ever used it, and another not very far from 

 Washington, D. C, costing $17,000, has never been 

 proved to have enabled one fish to get up. On a Nova 

 Scotia river, to give another Canadian example, a net 

 was arranged at the upper entrance of a fish pass, which 

 was arranged so as to capture any fish passing up the 



