Prince. — A New Form of Fishway 171 



THIS FISH-WAY IS SIMPLE, PORTABLE, AUTOMATIC. 



The invention may be described as a fish-trap into which the 

 fish swim and are enclosed, and then lifted up, and dumped over 

 fish swim and are enclosed and then lifted up, and dumped over 

 the top of the obstruction. It works automatically by means of 

 a counterpoise or tank which is filled with water by gravitation 

 or by means of a pump, and when full it descends, and in doing so 

 pulls up the fish-trap below containing the fish. Any fish that can 

 be induced to enter a fish-trap can be enclosed and lifted up by 

 this apparatus. It consists of a comparatively light frame work 

 of wood, iron, or other material so as to be portable, and it can 

 be taken to pieces and stored away during the winter. One of 

 the greatest dangers to the ordinary fish-passes is the accumulation 

 of ice in winter about water-falls, dams, etc., which may amount 

 to many tons, and which, during the freezing and thawing periods 

 in winter and spring, often breaks up the fish-pass and carries 

 parts, or it may be the whole of it away. Moreover, freshets in 

 spring damage and destroy many of the fish-passes now in use. 

 In the new fish-elevator the frame work, as I have said, can be 

 taken to pieces, and the structure is not in use during the winter, 

 when no fish are ascending. It is erected just prior to the first 

 runs of fish in spring, and remains in operation only until the last 

 runs of fish in the fall. As a fine-meshed wire net-work covers 

 the whole frame work, rubbish cannot get into it and fill it up. 

 Moreover, its success does not depend upon the varying supply 

 of water, as the filling of the counterpoise can be arranged by taps 

 and valves so that it will operate at regular intervals, whatever the 

 state of the river. There is no necessity for erecting this fish- 

 elevator at the point where the main body of water falls over; but 

 it can be placed to one side, or indeed in any position where the 

 fish can find their way into it, and being raised automatically and 

 dumped out on a level with the height of the obstruction, a 

 sluiceway of greater or lesser length can be devised to convey 

 into the stream above the falls, the fish when dumped out. It can be 

 placed anywhere where fish can be trapped, and there is no neces- 

 sity for placing it directly against the face of the obstruction for 

 if dumped into a sluice-way the fish can easily swim, as stated, 

 to the pool or stream above the obstruction. 



