Cobb. — Protecting Migrating Pacific Salmon. 155 



one to the other; they also have a place to rest. Particulars as to the cori' 

 struction of this fishway can be obtained from our department. 



Mr. J. N. CoBB: Our irrigation projects do not bother us so much, 

 because the dams are all low. But I have now at my office an application 

 for a fishway or some way of getting the fish over a dam 110 feet high. 

 The projectors expect to take every drop of water out of the river on 

 which the dam will be located, and run it through a sluiceway to the power 

 plant, which will be located on salt water. We have at present in use a 

 power project with a dam 200 feet high; they put a fishway in the dam, 

 the entrance to which is nearly 600 feet below the apron of the dam. 

 The State Fish Commission uses it mainly for the catching of squawfish 

 and suckers. About half way up the fishway a gate cuts off the ascent 

 of the fish, and when the suckers and squawfish get up there they are re- 

 moved. Nobody has ever seen a salmon or trout go up this last fishway. 

 We don't find as great a difficulty in getting the adult fish up and over 

 the dam as we do in getting the young fish safely over it on their downward 

 migration. There is a sluiceway in the Sunnyside dam, but it is too swift 

 for fish; there is always a heavy flow of water through it — the less water 

 they have in the river the more there is in the sluiceway. The^ want to 

 use as much as possible of the run of water through the ditches and as 

 little as possible over the dams. But we have had the assurance from 

 the United States Reclamation Service that no more irrigation projects 

 will be considered unless the problem of how to get fish over these dams 

 is considered at the same time. 



Dr. E. E. Prince, Ottawa, Canada: The points raised in Mr. Cobb's 

 communication we in Canada have faced for a good many years. We have 

 approached this fishway question, it seems to me, from an entirely wrong 

 standpoint. Every species of fish has its own peculiar susceptibilities and 

 methods, and the same mode of ascent apparently does not suit all. 



Mr. Cobb has told us that every dam is different; there are no two 

 alike. There is also the engineering difficulty ; I do not see how you can 

 erect a fishway in a strong dam without weakening it from an engineering 

 standpoint. Many members of this Society will remember that four years 

 ago I made a proposal to lift the fish up mechanically*, but I confess that 

 I have been disappointed in receiving little encouragement from anybody in 

 regard to this device of mine. If you can lift fish a height of 10 feet you 

 can lift them with the same device a distance of 100 feet. Apparently most 

 fish culturists think it is the wrong way of solving the difficulty; they want 

 to make the fish go up themselves, whereas I want to elevate them mechan- 

 ically. Mr. Cobb has mentioned the building of dams over 100 feet high. 

 Well, if you let the fish climb up that height by a ladder or pass you 

 provide a trap from which any poacher can take the fish. The longer the 

 fishway the more opportunity there will be for them to take the fish out 

 Fishways are often in out of the way places and very hard to protect. 

 Again, in Canada — and I suppose you have the same in many states — we 



• See Trans. Amer. Pish. Soc, Vol. XLVIII, No. 3. 



