236 NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION. 



of that State are quite different from those of the Eastern 

 States. Altogether, much has been accomplished within the 

 past two years, though not without much remonstrance and 

 serious opposition. In some instances, a vigorous war has 

 been waged against the dam-constructors and other depreda- 

 tors. They have been expecially incensed against the Indians 

 and a Eev. Mr. Balcome, the Missionary Baptist Agent, on 

 account of their having built a dam across the Truckee Eiver, 

 between Wadsworth and Pyramid Lakes, which prevented 

 the trout from ascending the river. Last April they under- 

 took to remove the obstruction. They raised $100 by sub- 

 scription, which they gave to a man to go down and blow up 

 the dam with giant powder. The charge of powder was 

 sunk on the upper side of the dam, and when the explosion 

 took place a column of mud and water was thrown up to the 

 height of nearly a hundred feet. Long pine trees that had 

 floated down the river and lodged against the dam, were 

 lifted several feet into the air and rained down everywhere. 

 The man who fired the charge had screened himself behind 

 a big cotton-wood tree, and down among the limbs of this 

 tree came crashing a rock of fifty-pounds weight, causing 

 him to do some lively dodging. The dam was totally de- 

 stroyed, and doubtless great numbers of fish, but the man 

 who bossed the "blow-up" did not stop to look for fish. 

 He traveled from that vicinity at a lively pace, as he ex- 

 pected the Indians to take his trail as soon as they discov- 

 ered what he had done. The blowing up of the dam gave 

 free passage up the river to the trout. The residents in the 

 vicinity declare they will keep the dam open if it takes fifty 

 men to do it. 



Altogether, the work of propagation and restoration 

 throughout the entire country during the last three years, 

 especially in New England, has been very considerable ; still 

 it is hardly time to look for astounding results. It is one 

 thing to stock a stream from which salmon have been ex- 

 cluded for many years, and quite another to merely remove 



