218 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
and brings the squaw net to the shore. The fish is then removed and 
the apparatus again put in position. It has been impracticable to de- 
termine the exact quantities of salmon taken by this form of apparatus, 
since the entire catch of the dip-net fishermen has naturally been aggre- 
gated and credited to dip nets. It is, however, believed to be unim- 
portant since only a few squaw nets are used. 
The pound nets are lifted once a day, at or near low water. Only two 
men are required to lift one of these pound nets. The method of oper- 
ating the pound is the same as that in vogue on the Great Lakes and 
the Atlantic Coast. It has been so frequently described that it is not 
deemed necessary to repeat the description here. 
As a rule, the fish caught in Baker’s Bay are taken to the scows that 
are moored conveniently near. In some cases, however, they are put 
on board of the tugs when the latter chance to be present about the 
time that the pound nets are lifted. 
It is said that pound nets take a large percentage of steelheads and 
bluebacks, but that the chinook salmon caught in them seldom weigh 
less than 14 pounds apiece.* 
In the lower part of the river, in what is called the estuary of the 
Columbia, pound nets have been found most effective apparatus in the 
capture of salmon, particularly at Baker’s Bay. Sometimes very large 
catches are obtained. A considerable number of soles, flounders, pike, 
and suckers are taken incidentally in the pounds, but these are gen- 
erally thrown away. In 1889 the pound nets in Baker’s Bay made an 
average daily catch of about five shad to a net. These were generally 
returned alive to the water after the pound was lifted. 
In the account of the fish-wheel given in the preceding chapter (on 
apparatus), the method of catching fish by this device was shown. Fish 
are caught automatically, u pumped out of the river,” as Major Jones 
has graphically stated it. The wheels run night and day ; the catch is 
chiefly at night, and it has been aptly said that those interested have 
nothing to do at that time but lie in bed and listen to the salmon drop- 
ping into the boxes or scows, sounds that can not fail to be cheering to 
those whose financial success is thereby assured. In the close season 
and on Sundays, the wheels are lifted, so that the fish can run by them. 
An ingenious device has been adopted by the fish- wheel men to trans- 
port their catch to the canneries 2 to 5 miles farther down the river. 
* The salmon are tied together in bunches and these are attached to 
casks and sent down the stream. Each cannery has its private colors 
for casks. A sharp lookout is kept for these aquatic transports, and, 
when one is seen and its color made out, a tug or steam-launch starts 
out to pick it up and bring the fish to the cannery. As many as 1,500 
pounds of fish have been floated down at one time in this way. 
* Testimony of Mr. M. J. McKinney before the Senate Committee on Relations with 
Canada. 
