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The fact is that while the State has expended thousands 
of dollars to get the fish up, they have never expended 
one cent to get them down. They have overlooked that. 
On streams which are not given to manufacture it is very 
easy to get up and go down over the falls. But on rivers 
like the Merrimac and the Connecticut, used for manu- 
facturing purposes, how are those fish to get down, 
especially during the season when these young shad go 
to saltwater, which is along in July and August, when the 
waters of the Merrimac and Connecticut are low. It is 
true a little water may run in the fish-way; but it is the 
habit of all these fish in descending and ascending a river 
to go where the strongest current is through the wheels. 
The fish of the Connecticut and the Merrimac, ninety-five 
per cent of them I venture to say, go through the wheels. 
And what are those wheels? They are a tub and wheel. 
And a fish an inch anda half long can no more go through 
that wheel than he can go through a meat chopper. 
Nothing can go through. What are you going to do 
about it? There is only one thing, and that-is to stop 
the manufacturing or else take out the wheels. Years 
ago, when the Mill act was passed, overshot wheels were 
universally in use. Now, a fish can go through an over- 
shot wheel without any danger. It is a very important 
consideration how you are going to get fish down. At 
the Russell mill, where I have been employed for a num- 
ber of years, rather than to put a fish-way in, they carry 
the fish up, cart them up and put them into the river 
above. There are millions hatched there but there is not 
one goes down through alive. 
Mr. Rocers—My experience of a quarter of a century 
in this matter is that young fish have no difficulty in find- 
ing their way down. Herrings and shad go down is Sep- 
tember in that country ; during that month, all of that 
month. There is abundance of water going over the tops 
of the dams, and fish can go down wherever water goes. 
I have investigated the wheel idea, and I have known 
