18 



STEAMER LOTUS. 



While we have a fair code of f^sh laws, and they are as generally 

 enforced as any of the protection laws, yet there is a tendency to 

 take fish at times when it is unlawful to do so. For so many years 

 it was considered almost a vested right by the man or men living 

 along the rivers to take fish when and where they pleased, and it has 

 taken very persistent work on our part to convince people in some 

 localities that any law affects the right to take fish in that manner 

 now. Scattered all along the whole length of both rivers are to be 

 found small cabin boats, or perhaps rude cabins on the bank, the 

 occupant a fisherman, dependent upon fishing for his support. They 

 are away from the immediate supervision of the Warden and too 

 often take advantage of that fact and use improper mesh or take fish 

 at unlawful times. The most troublesome and one of the most de- 

 structive methods of taking fish is by means of what is known as 

 a w4ng netting, or as expressed by the fishermen "shutting of a 

 slough." This is accomplished in several ways. When the water is 

 rising it backs up from the river through a slough into a lake or 

 lakes. These lakes sometimes cover an area of thousands of acres 

 before the river banks are submerged. Fish always go up through 

 these sloughs into the shallow waters of the lakes on rising water 

 early in the season to find spawning grounds and later during the 

 season should the river take a "spurt" upwards, in search of food. 

 As soon as the river begins to recede or come to a stand, the adult 

 will undertake to go out into the river again. After the fish have 

 gone in with the rising water, and before they have had a chance to 

 get out, the wing net is used, and the slough or outlet is "shut off." 

 This is accomplished by setting stakes, usually in a semicircle around 

 the mouth of the slough, and hanging on them a piece of web, usually 

 an old seine, after the manner of a fence. Now when the water com- 

 mences to fall, fish undertake to go out, and they are simx^ly forced 

 into a funnel placed in the obstruction and every one of them can be 

 taken. Frequently it is the case that fish so caught are in such 

 plentiful numbers that they can not be used, and they are allowed to 

 die there, as they do by the thousands, and are thrown out of the net 

 into the river. On several occasions while going up the river we 

 have met a continuous mass of dead and bloated lish floating down 

 with the current extending for a mile or more, some wing-net fisher- 

 man having cleaned his nets, or thrown thedeail fish out of live boxes, 

 in which they are sometimes placed for market. The waste of fish in 

 this way is very great, particularly after the weather has become 

 warm. Fish crowded together as they are under circumstances given, 

 soon perish. 



The ordinary fyke net with long wings and leads is another de- 

 structive method of taking fish. They are frequently so placed by 

 their proximity to each other and arrangement of the wings, that ex- 

 cept in the channel of the river, the course of the fish is practicallj' 

 "shut oft"' and the instances are not rare when we have taken them 

 from the channel itself. When we refer to the channel we mean 

 that part of the river usually followed by the steamboat. 



