Buck. — Fish/ways for the Rank and File 105 



being slower between the partitions than under them. The 

 build of fishes enables them to head upstream with less effort 

 than in any other direction, or just as a weather-vane points 

 to windward. Their whole energy may, therefore, be ap- 

 plied to stemming the current and every move will set them 

 forward in the right direction. Prof. Elias Loomis once 

 said to his class: "If you wish to know how anything in 

 nature will behave, you must experiment; you can't reason 

 it out beforehand." In suggesting this plan for a fishway 

 the writer wishes to admit that the fishes still hold the same 

 veto power which they have been exercising at their own 

 sweet wills in regard to all previous plans. That is, although 

 the plan is based on observed habits of fish, as well as hy- 

 draulic principles, still it must be admitted that no fishway 

 has yet been built on this plan and submitted to the fish for 

 approval. For the benefit of the daring innovator who may 

 venture to build one, a few further suggestions are offered. 



1. Have the openings at the upper and lower ends of 

 the fishway as low as practicable, that is, not only on the bot- 

 tom of the fishway but on the bottom of the stream, or as 

 near it as may be practicable. 



2. Where the opening is above the bottom of the stream, 

 extend the bottom of the fishway beyond its sides up or 

 down stream, as the case may be, so that fish may pass to 

 and from the apron thus provided in water less swift than 

 that of the fishway itself. 



3. Where practicable, build the fishway above the dam. 

 This last because there are almost sure to be leaks, and a 

 leak into the fishway through a crack in side or bottom 

 is far less dangerous than a leak out of it. This is not mere 

 theory, but is based on the observed fact that numbers of 

 salmon have been found caught and killed by being held by 

 pressure of water at a crack in the planking above a dam. 



In conclusion, it may not be amiss to refer briefly to the 

 points in which existing fishways seem to the writer to 

 come short. 



