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FISHWAYS. The selection of a proper form of fishway 

 is a difficult matter, and has never yet been determined. 

 Several forms and plans have been selected, from the 

 plain, open, inclined shute to a system of compartments 

 divided from one another and stopping the water by ob- 

 structions. Fish will pass up these, even shad, which 

 are among the most timid, but the results bear little 

 comparison to what would take place with an open 

 river and free access to the waters alone. Many fish 

 never find the mouth of the pass, arid others are 

 afraid to ascend it. By a law passed in 1874, by 

 the New York Legislature, the commissioners were 

 required to cause to be constructed in the upper 

 aqueduct, in the town of Niskayuna, Schenectady 

 county, a "Brewer's Patent Chute and Fishway." 

 This direction of the legislature was not founded on any 

 act, declaration or advice of the Commissioners, and there 

 was no discretion left them or called for by the act in 

 question. They were to make the contract and see to 

 the proper execution of the work, which they did. The 

 work was well and reasonably done, and while declining 

 yet to express a positive opinion in a matter of such doubt 

 and uncertainty, we have been favorably impressed with 

 the woiking of the fishway, and hope it will prove what 

 has been so long sought without complete success, an 

 easy and moderately expensive method of overcoming 

 obstructions in a river, either placed there by nature or 

 by man, and which form an insurmountable obstacle to 

 the ascent of fish. 



This fishway is twenty (20) feet wide between piers or 

 side walls, its lineal distance is forty-one (41) feet, height 

 of dam five (5) feet, incline one (1) foot in ten. The 

 passage-way for fish is eighteen (18) inches wide by 

 fifteen (15) inches deep. There are six (6) angles, three 

 (3) on each side ; and built of timber, stone and iron. 



