August 20, 1903] 



NATURE 



;63 



Chanoine Shutter Weir, and the Drum Weir. The 

 needle weir consists of a series of wooden spars resting 

 against a bar at the top across the weir, carried on 



(a row of iron frames providing- a foot-bridge, and 

 against a sill at the bottom, though of late years sliding 

 panels or rolling-up curtains have been often substi- 

 tuted for the spars or needles ; and this type of weir 

 has been adopted for the first time in the United States 

 for a weir across the Big Sandy River at Louisa, in 

 Kentucky, with large inverted V-shaped frames placed 



8 feet apart, and lying one inside the other when 

 lowered on the apron in flood-time, and closed by 

 needles having the exceptional dimensions of 12 inches 

 width, 14 feet length, and 8^ inches thickness at the 

 bottom and 45 inches at the top. which are handled by 



i a floating derrick. The frame weir suspended from an 

 I overhead bridge, so that all the movable parts can be 

 raised out of the river in flood-time, as resorted to on 

 the Lower Seine at Poses and Port-Mort, and the 

 barriers substituted for needles, are described and 

 illustrated in the book, but have not hitherto been 

 adopted in the United States. 



The Chanoine shutter weir is composed of a series 

 of shutters supported centrally on a trestle, and turn- 

 ing on a horizontal axis, the trestle being maintained 

 in an upright position by a prop, resting at its lower 

 extremity in a cast-iron shoe fixed to the apron when 

 the river is closed; and the weir is opened by with- 

 drawing the props from their shoes, causing the trestles 

 to fall flat on the apron, with the shutters on top of 

 them in a horizontal position. Owing to the rapidity 

 \. with which it can be opened, this type of weir is 

 advantageous for rivers subject to sudden floods ; and 

 it has been adopted in the United States across the 

 deep navigable passes on the Ohio and Kanawha 

 Rivers, where shutters somewhat larger than the 

 biggest in France have been erected. 



The drum weir consists essentially of an upper and 

 an under paddle revolving on a central horizontal axis, 

 the row of upper paddles forming the weir; and the 

 under paddles, revolving in the quadrant of a hori- 

 zontal cylinder forming the drum, are made to close or 

 open the weir by altering the water-pressure on their 

 two sides in the drum, so that when the head of water 

 from the upper pool presses on the upstream side of 

 the under paddles, the upper paddles rise against the 



[current of the river. In spite of the perfect control 

 of this weir which the under paddles afi"ord, the deep 

 foundations required for these paddles below the sill, 

 exceeding the height of the weir above it, have 

 hindered its general adoption ; and since the comple- 

 tion, in 1867, of a series of these weirs in the canalisa- 

 tion of the Marne, a tributary of the Seine, they have 

 only been used in Europe for timber passes at the side 

 of the weirs erected across the River Main for canal- 

 ising it in 1883-6, and across the navigable pass, 



9 feet in depth, of the Spree at Charlottenburg. A 

 modified form of drum weir has been quite recently 

 constructed in timber across the Osage River in 

 Missouri, in which the paddles are replaced by a 

 sector of a cylinder which fits exactly in the drum 

 when lowered, and closes the weir when raised. The 

 old bear-trap weir fell into oblivion for many years 

 in America; but within the last few vears some weirs 



NO. 1764, VOL, 68] 



of this type, of improved design, have been constructed ; 

 and two, placed alongside a new weir near Beaver 

 on the Ohio River, each 120 feet long and 13 feet high, 

 serve for the passage of drift and for regulating the 

 discharge. * 



Another peculiar, novel type of weir, also forming 

 part of the new weir across the Ohio, consists of a 

 series of A-shaped frames, which, as in other frame 

 weirs, can be lowered flat on the bed of the river in 

 flood-time ; but it difi'ers from ordinary frame weirs 

 in the frames themselves forming the barrier for 

 closing the weir, by being constructed with a widened 

 plated upstream leg touching the plates of the legs of 

 the adjacent frames when standing upright, besides 

 furnishing a support for the foot-bridge along the top 

 of the weir. 



The book concludes with three appendices, giving 

 the dimensions of various locks and weirs in the L'nited 

 States, the standard specifications adopted for certain 

 river works and materials, and laws for protecting the 

 waterways in the United States. Altogether, the book 

 alTords a large amount of information about works 

 carried out on rivers under Government in the United 

 States ; whilst in some of the chapters, such as those 

 on levees, storage reservoirs, and more especially those 

 on movable weirs, interesting particulars are also given 

 of European works. 



■THE FISHERMAN IN AMERICA. 



Bass, Pike, Perch, and Others. By James A. Hen- 

 shall. Pp. xix + 410. (New York: the Macmillan 

 Company; London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1903.) 

 Price Ss. 6d. net. 



Big Game Fishes of the United States. By Chas. F. 

 Holder. Pp. xiv + 435. (New York: The Mac- 

 millan Company; London: Macmillan and Co., 

 Ltd., 1903.) Price 85. 6d. net. 



THESE two volumes of the " American Sports- 

 man's Library " deal with the fishes of the 

 United States, other than salmon, trout, and char, 

 from the sportsman's point of view. Although the 

 same ground is to a certain extent covered by both, 

 Dr. Henshall has to deal with numerous species in- 

 habiting both fresh and salt water, while Mr. Holder's 

 volume confines itself to a coriiparatively small num- 

 ber of marine species, and this naturally results in the 

 adoption of a diff^erent method of treating the subject 

 by the two authors; this much they have in common, 

 that both have produced books which give the angler 

 information as to the tackle to be employed for each 

 species and the places in which to employ it, and at 

 the same time illustrate their remarks with excellent 

 personal observations on the habits of the fish with 

 which they deal. 



The first book under notice combines in a greater 

 degree than almost any other work of which we are 

 aware, systematic ichthyology and directions to the 

 fisherman ; the author has adopted the classification of 

 Jordan and Evermann's " Fishes of North and Middle 

 America," and his specific descriptions and most of his 

 nomenclature are taken from that standard work, with 

 the addition of useful observations of his own upon the 



