AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. 93 



Mr. l»aiker: Not at all. 



Secretan- Whitaker: That would overcome one of the most 

 serious objections. It weakens a dam to put in these struc- 

 tures. 



President Peahody: Have you succeeded in having any fish 

 ways ])ut in o])eration in your state? 



Secretary Wliitaker: Yes; we have had them for thirty 

 years, but they are not successful. 



Mr. Titcomb: I would like to ask the Doctor if he has 

 taken into consideration the location of that pound net. These 

 fish run, ordinarily, when the water is high and an ordinary 

 pound net or almost any form of weir below the dam where you 

 have to use the fish way. is going to be washed out. 



Mr. Parker: I will give you my idea, that two or three feet 

 high, diagonally across the stream, you put in something made 

 of slabs and tlie force of the water will hold it there. 



Mr. Titcomb: Does it not clog? 



Mr. Parker: It does not matter about clogging. The water 

 goes over it and the fish come under it. It can not clog on the 

 under side. 



Mr. Titcomb: Our dams have logs three or four feet in 

 diameter going over them. 



Mr. Parker: But this will not be over tw'o or three feet 

 high in the bottom of the river, and your flood wood, etc., 

 during the time that your fish are running, would most gen- 

 erally be above the top of that. That is a practical thing 

 which has been carried out in our river. They have put in 

 booms in that way, and they are there today, little abutments 

 like. It looks to me as if this would solve that very much 

 vexed question of how to get the fish over the dams. 



Secretary' ^\'hitaker: There is no reason why the State 

 should not pass a law providing that in the construction of 

 anj- new dam, whether it is an original, new construction or 

 built to take the place of one swept away, the owner should be 

 compelled to put in a chute. In the course of twenty years 

 generally speaking, you would thus have chutes in a majority 

 of the dams of the State. In the course of time dams grow 

 weak, and they go out and have to be renewed, and in that way 

 you could get his done where otherwise there would be too 

 much opposition. 



Mr. Titcomb: That is the way we are endeavoring to over- 

 come the sawdust question in our State. That all new mills 

 shall take care of their sawdust, and as the old ones are gradu- 

 ally retired, we will eventually- get our streams purified. 



Mr. Clark: I would like to say one word in regard to this 

 fish way. In the early days of the Fish Commission I was 

 at Holyoke, Mass., and one of my duties was to look at the fish- 



