FISHWAYS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA 7 



The effect of this obstruction during 1913-14 will not be fully 

 known until after the runs of 1917-18, but it appears safe to predict 

 that the results will be found to be of a very serious character.* 



Sufficient has now been said to prove the great importance of 

 providing satisfactory ingress and egress for the salmon. At the 

 present time the salmon that escape capture on the fishing grounds 

 have, save for natural obstructions, such £is are caused by falls too 

 steep to be surmounted, an unobstructed passage-way from the sea 

 to the remotest sections of the water-sheds of the large streams; 

 there are, moreover, practically no canals diverting from the main 

 channels. It is absolutely essential for the life of the salmon industry 

 in British Columbia that adequate and practically workable provisions 

 be made and maintained for the safeguarding of the salmon — ^both 

 adult and young — in connection with the granting of any rights or 

 privileges for the damming of streams, for the diversion of water for 

 power, irrigation, or other activities involving the use of the inland 

 waters. 



It is not possible here, nor is it the intention, to enter upon an 

 extended discussion of the ways and means by which the integrity 

 of inland waters may be preserved for the propagation of fish life. 

 It is, however, necessary to direct special attention to the need of 

 providing and maintaining a class of structure which has been alto- 

 gether too much neglected, viz., fishways. 



An excellent summary, respecting the general principles that 

 should find exemplification in the construction of fishways, is con- 

 tained in a statement prepared by the architect and engineer of the 

 United States Board of Fisheries: 



"With the development in late years of water-power for commer- 

 cial enterprises on an economic basis, with the construction of canals 

 for cheapening .the transportation of freight, with the proposition of 

 irrigating the otherwise waste lands of the country — all of which im- 

 provements call for the erection of dams across our rivers — the steady 

 decrease of fish life in the waters above said dams or other obstructions 

 has become more and more apparent, and the question has presented 

 itself how to enable the fish to ascend to the headwaters of rivers, in 

 order to reach their spawning grounds for the propagation of their 

 kind, or to follow their migratory habits in search of food as heretofore. 

 This question is being best met by the construction of suitable fishways. 



* Information has come to hand indicating the character of the salmon run 

 of 1917, and the indications appear clearly to justify the apprehension entertained in 

 1913 respecting the serious results caused by the rock slide, and which results, it 

 was held, would later be manifested. 



