6 ' Public Document. 



"no " in a most empliatic manner, and a few did not take 

 the trouble to respond to the communications of the commis- 

 sioners at all. 



As the time had not arrived for anything more than mild 

 argument, the commissioners next turned their attention to 

 the Pawtuxet River. They made a personal examination of 

 the entire length of the stream ; interviewed all the dam 

 owners, and examined all the dams, seventeen (17) in num- 

 ber. They found the dam owners on this stream were dis- 

 posed to take enlarged views on the subject, and in conse- 

 quence, it was determined to make the first attempts at 

 re-stocking on this stream.- 



A chemical analysis of the water of the Pawtuxet, taken 

 from points where impurities most abound, gave very satis- 

 factory results, which leaves nothing to be desired on that 

 very important point. 



FISH-WAYS. 



Next to the actual introduction of fish in the streams to 

 be re-stocked, the most important consideration are the fish- 

 ways to enable them to come and go as nature prompts them. 

 Over every dam a., fish- way must be constructed, else all the 

 labor and expense, as far as salmon, shad and herring are 

 concerned, are time and money thrown away. 



There is no doubt of the fact that salmon and shad once 

 abounded in both the Pawcatiick and Pawtuxet rivers, and 

 a resident of River Point, on the latter stream, remembers 

 salmon being taken from the "Salmon Hole," so called, be- 

 low that village, some sixty years ago. To get this glorious 

 fish back to its former haunts becomes now, with the aid of 

 artificial incubation and fish-ways, a comparitively simple 

 matter. 



The dams are owned by individuals and corporations amply 

 able, in a pecuniary point, to provide the requisite fiicilities, 



