418 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



but not so much as I should have expected. Not one single 

 fish, alas ! did I see get over; some of them jumped into the 

 body of the waterfall, and were hurled violently back into the 

 pool, like the pictures we see of soldiers of old thrown down 

 headlong from the ramparts of a besieged city. Other fish 

 would put on more steam, and were in consequence carried 

 by their own impetus right through the sheet of water, dash- 

 ing themselves with the force of a cricket-ball against the 

 solid wall which formed the weir. These also, poor things ! 

 fell back into the pool half stunned, and with cut and bruised 

 noses. While the bigger fish were making these strenuous 

 efforts to ascend, their smaller companions were jumping dis- 

 tances more or less high up into the falling water. Many 

 had evidently given it up for a bad job, and were swimming 

 about with their little black noses projecting out of the white 

 boiling water, doubtless crying out, ' We can't get up, we 

 can't get up. Cruel miller to put the weir. Do what you 

 can for us.' 'Wait a bit, my dear fish,' I said; 'the Duke 

 of Northumberland is a kind man, and he is going to make a 

 ladder for you; the plans are nearly settled, and you shall 

 then jump for joy, and not for pain. In the mean time read 

 this.' So I pinned a large piece of paper on the weir, which 

 read thus: 'Notice to salmon and bull-trout no road at 

 present over this weir. Go down stream, take the first turn 

 to the right, and you will find good traveling water up stream, 

 and no jumping required.'" 



Passes for trout over common dams may be accomplished 

 by building a tumbling dam, so that the fish may surmount 

 it by small leaps. That common fish should ascend dams is 

 as important as that trout and salmon should, for the com- 

 mon fish and their roe form food for the game fish. Smelts, 

 herrings, moss-bunkers, chub, dace, spearing, caplin, sardines, 

 launces, etc., are made as subsistence for salmon and trout, 

 and the stairs and passes should be so graduated as to enable 

 them to pass up and procreate their generations. 



In propagating trout, it is frequently necessary that they 



