418 Fispine iv American WATERS. 
but not so much as I should have expected. Not one single 
fish, alas! did I see get over; some of them jumped into the 
body of the waterfall, and were hurled violently back into the 
pool, like the pictures we see of soldiers of old thrown down 
headlong from the ramparts of a besieged city. Other fish 
would put on more steam, and were in consequence carried 
by their own impetus right through the sheet of water, dash- 
ing themselves with the force of a cricket-ball against the 
solid wall which formed the weir. These also, poor things! 
fell back into the pool half stunned, and with cut and bruised 
noses. While the bigger fish were making these strenuous 
efforts to ascend, their smaller companions were jumping dis- 
tances more or less high up into the falling water. Many 
had evidently given it up for a bad job, and were swimming 
about with their little black noses projecting out of the white 
boiling water, doubtless crying out, ‘We can’t get up, we 
can’t get up. Cruel miller to put the weir. Do what you 
can for us.’ ‘Wait a bit, my dear fish,’ I said; ‘the Duke 
of Northumberland is a kind man, and he is going to make a 
ladder for you; the plans are nearly settled, and you shall 
then jump for joy, and not for pain. In the mean time read 
this.” So I pinned a large piece of paper on the weir, which 
read thus: ‘Notice to salmon and bull-trout—no road at 
present over this weir. Go down stream, take the first turn 
to the right, and you will find good traveling water up stream, 
and no jumping required.’ ” 
Passes for trout over common dams may be accomplished 
by building a tumbling dam, so that the fish may surmount 
it by small leaps. That common fish should ascend dams is 
as important as that trout and salmon should, for the com- 
mon fish and their roe form food for the game fish. Smelts, 
herrings, moss-bunkers, chub, dace, spearing, caplin, sardines, 
launces, ete., are made as subsistence for salmon and trout, 
and the stairs and passes should be so graduated as to enable 
them to pass up and procreate their generations. 
In propagating trout, it is frequently necessary that they 
