292 SALMON FISHING IN CANADA. 



according to the depth of water they spring from ; in shallow 



water they have little power of ascension, in deep they have the 



most considerable. They rise very rapidly from the very bottom 



to the surface of the water by means of rowing and sculling as it 



were with their fins and tail, and this powerful impetus bears 



them upwards in the air, on the same principle that a few tugs 



of the oar make a boat shoot onwards after one has ceased to 



row." However this may be, we know that salmon use almost 



incredible efforts to ascend their native rivers. Modes have 



recently been adopted in France, in England, Scotland and 



Ireland, by which they can do so with ease, and which can be 



much more cheaply applied to mill-dams in Canada than in any 



of the countries above mentioned. This is simply by constructing 



below each mill-dani a congeries of wooden boxes proportioned to 



the height of the dam which could be done, in any weirs I have 



seen requiring them, for a sum not exceeding twenty dollars. 



We will suppose that the mill-dam to be passed over is fifteen 



feet high from the surface of the water, and that the salmon can 



surmount the height of five feet at a single bound, then it would 



be only necessary to erect two boxes, each five feet high, one 



over the other (as in the illustration) to enable the salmon, in 



three leaps, to reach the waters which nature prompts him to 



seek for the propagation of his species. In many Canadian 



rivers such as Metis, Matane, Rimouski, Trois Saumons, &c. 



this simple apparatus might be put in operation for one half the sum 



I have mentioned, and I trust it has only to be suggested to the 



gentlemen residing on their banks to arouse their patriotism and 



excite them to activity in the matter. There can be no doubt 



that were the mill-dams removed, or boxes constructed adjacent 



to them, and protection afforded to the spawning fish, many of 



the rivers in Upper Canada would again abound with salmon. 



I have myself, within a few years, taken the true Salmo Salar in 



Lake Ontario, near Kingston, and many persons in Toronto know 



