45 



necessary to excavate about lifteen Ihuiusand five liundred 

 cubic yards of rock, in order to provide an incline plane upoi) 

 which to build the zig-zag walls and for the channels for in- 

 gress and egress with the proper rate of inclination. l*ut- 

 ting this at one dollar per yard, will amount to fifteen thou- 

 sand and five hundred dollars. This price may not be sufH- 

 cient, irom the fact, that it will be difficult to make these 

 excavations without being interfered with by the water. 



From the sketch of the fisli-way v/hich you liave shown me 

 I estimate that it will require about two liundred and twenty- 

 five cubic yards of cut stone, some of which would liavc to be 

 fastened down with iron pins or bolts. This would cost 

 about ten dollars per yard amounting to two thousand two 

 hundred and fifty dollars, and., make up a total cost of seven- 

 teen thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars. 



I hope what I have written^ althougli containing no sug- 

 gestion of value to the subject which you have in hand, will 

 prove to be a correct description of the locality and of the 

 difficulties to be overcome in enabling the migratory fishes to 

 ascend the Potomac beyond the Great Falls. 



Yours, &c,, 



Ed. Randolph. 



— o- 



Thc acconipanying map will show the profiles of lines run, 

 and localities referred to in Major llandolph's report, as well 

 as the location and plan of a fish-way proposed by Commis- 

 sioner T. B. Ferguson, wliich provides for the construction 

 of a channel, by blasting the rocks, v/ith a grade of about 

 three feet to the hundred, and then by means of devices for 

 breaking the current, ascend in some two hundred feet about 

 sixteen feet, and then by following tlie low- places in the 

 rocks, ascend some twenty-eight feet in eight hundred. This 

 would necessitate the erection of a wall at a point where the 

 water makes into the rock on the Maryland side opposite to 

 the main falls. \ye have traced in the ))lan, simply as an 

 illustration, a fish-way patented by Jas. I). Brewer, as it is 

 one of the latest models, luit do not intend in any manner to 

 be understood as recommending its adoption, as w^e prefer to 



