212 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
upon which an awning is spread to protect the fish from the sun’s rays 
and the crew from rain, etc. To one end of the scow are fastened two 
upright posts, which are guyed by wooden supports, while* projecting 
from the same end is the framework that supports the wheel. The wheel 
itself is composed of three large scoop-shaped dip nets made of galvan- 
ized-iron wire netting, with a mesh of 3£ to 4 inches. These nets are 
the buckets of the wheel, and they are so arranged on a horizontal axis 
that when the scow is moored with this end down stream the wheel is 
kept in constant motion by the current, and thus picks up any fish 
swimming up the river which come within its deadly circle. The nets 
are fixed at such an angle that, as they revolve, their contents fall into 
a box chute through which the fish slide into the scow. 
A scow usually has a mast at the end opposite to that upon which 
the wheel is placed, and on deck are such mechanical contrivances as 
experience has shown to be necessary for raising and lowering the wheel. 
During the close time the wheels must be raised above the water, so 
that they will catch no fish. 
The fixed wheel is located in the most favorable position, where it is 
known the salmon have a sort of trail. Here an abutment is built of 
wood and stone, high enough to protect it from an ordinary rise in the 
river. To this is attached the necessary framework and the wheel, the 
latter being generally so placed that the full force of the cufrent will 
come to it. The fish are carried through a chute into a large bin on 
shore, where the salmon are prepared for transmission to the canneries. 
The efficiency of the wheels is generally increased by building leaders in 
the river, so that the course of the migrating salmon will be directed 
more certainly to the point where their capture can be effected. 
The success of the permanent wheels is frequently materially affected 
by low water in the river, and they are often stopped entirely from this 
cause. In the season of 1889 the river was unusually low, at least as 
late as June, and Wilcox reported that “ not half of the wheels have 
been able to do any work.” There is much variation in the size of fish 
wheels and a correspouding difference in their cost. The wheels range 
from 9 to 31 feet in diameter and from 4J to 14 feet in width ; they cost 
from $1,500 to $8,000. They do not often exceed $4,000 or $5,000 ; the 
most costly ones have long leaders of piling that materially add to the 
expense of construction. 
Major Jones makes the following interesting allusion to the fish wheel 
and its effectiveness : 
The wheel is the apotheosis of the dip net. Imagine a white man of inventive 
mind standing on one of those hold rocks wearily pushing a dip net through the 
foaming torrent at his feet. His first thought would be a desire to have a net that 
would be in the water all the time, so that no fish should be able to get by. If he 
could handle a succession of four or five nets the thing would be accomplished. To place 
them on the periphery of a wheel with a horizontal axis, the wheel to carry paddles to 
make the current of water revolve it, would almost be a logical sequence of the thought. 
Elaborate the idea with some details of making the nets as wide at the mouth as 
