10 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



further, the Bureau maintains that if fish of known migratory habit 

 are present and, presumably, obstructed to such a degree as to make a 

 fishway desirable, the asserted impracticability of fishway construction 

 is not to be accepted from anyone without strong affirmative evidence. 



This Bureau has stated that it has no knowledge of fishways in 

 the United States that successfully pass salmon over dams more than 

 20 feet in height, and that doubtless there are few fishways really 

 successful for dams over 12 feet in height, even for the salmon.* 



The State of Washington, bordering British Columbia on the 

 south, has experienced difficulty in providing suitable fishways. In 

 this State, conditions on many of the salmon streams are similar to 

 those in British Columbia, and power dams have been constructed 

 100 feet or more in height. It is instructive to note the experience 

 and conclusion of the Department of Fisheries and Game of the State 

 of Washington, as communicated in a letter by the State Fish Com- 

 missioner and Chief Game Warden, Mr. L. H. Darwin. Mr. Darwin 

 comments upon the difficulties of providing satisfactory fishways in 

 very high dams, but entertains hope that the difficulties may yet be 

 solved and fishways satisfactory in operation be devised. 



It has been found that a fishway is practically useless unless its 

 entrance is where the fish can easily find it, and, in order to bring the 

 entrance to the fishway into the waters at the foot of a high dam, it is 

 usually necessary to curve the fishway. Such a fishway is an ex- 

 pensive matter, concrete construction being, for high dams, the only 

 really satisfactory method, and the best rule laid down does not permit 



* The United States Bureau of Fisheries has stated that it lacks information 

 respecting the efficient operation of any existing fishway in the United States at dams 

 more than 20 feet in height. It is claimed, however, that fish have, by means of 

 fishways, satisfactorily surmounted dams 40 feet or more in height. The Bureau 

 has kindly furnished a memorandum of some of the instances for which such claim 

 is made. These, as reported by Mr. Carl D. Shoemaker, game warden of the State 

 of Oregon, are as follows: 



"A ladder giving excellent satisfaction is located in the Dee river, Hood River 

 county. This ladder has been used entirely by trout, principally of the cutthroat 

 variety. It is about two hundred feet long and rises about fifty feet. 



"At the Ray Gold dam, on the Rogue river, we have another ladder about 

 forty feet high, which is used also by salmon and steelheads. The fish pass over the 

 ladders in the Rogue river very easily." 



As reported by John J. Lenihan, Fish Commissioner of the State of Wyoming: 

 "The only one (fishway) that seems to successfully pass fish over a dam is located 

 in Snake river, near Jackson lake. This dam is about fifty feet high. Fish can be 

 observed passing over it during the months of June and July, same being of the black- 

 spotted species." 



A fishway, which is stated by Mr. T. Rouault, Jr., Game and Fish Warden of 

 New Mexico, to work very successfully, is located at the reservoir owned by the 

 Santa Fe Light and Power Company, on the Santa Fe river. The height of the dam 

 was not given. 



