29-2 SALMON FISHING IN CANADA. 



according to the depth of watex- they spring from ; in shallow 

 water they have little power of ascension, in deep they have the 

 most considerable. They rise very rapidly from the very bottom 

 to the .surface of the water by means of rowing and sculling as it 

 were with their fins and tail, and this powerful impetus bears 

 them upwards in the air, on the same principle that a few tugs 

 of the oar make a boat shoot onwards after one has ceased to 

 row." However this may be, we know that salmon use almost 

 incredible efforts to ascend their native rivers. Modes have 

 recently been adopted in France, in England, Scotland and 

 Ireland, by which they can do so with ease, and which can be 

 much more cheaply applied to mill-dams m Canada than in any 

 of the countries above mentioned. This is simply by constructing 

 beloAv each mill-dam a congeries of wooden boxes proportioned to 

 the height of the dam — which could be done, in any weirs I have 

 seen requiring them, for a sum not exceeding twenty dollars. 

 We will suppose that the mill-dam to be passed over is fifteen 

 feet high from the surface of the water, and that the salmon can 

 surmomit the height of five feet at a single bound, then it would 

 be only necessiuy to erect two boxes, each five feet high, one 

 over the other (as in the illustration) to enable the salmon, in 

 three leaps, to reach the waters which nature prompts him to 

 seek for the propagation of his .species. In many Canadian 

 rivers — such as Jletis, iMatane, Eimou.ski, Trois Saumons, &c. — 

 this simple apparatus might be put in operation for one half the sum 

 I have mentioned, and I trust it has only to be suggested to the 

 gentlemen residing on their banks to arouse their patriotism and 

 excite them to activity in the matter. There can be no doubt 

 that were the mill-dams removed, or boxes constructed adjacent 

 to them, and protection afforded to the spawning fish, many of 

 the rivers in ZTpper Canada would again abound with sahnon. 

 I have myself, within a few years, taken the true Salmo Salar in 

 Lake Ontario, near Kingston, and many persons in Toronto laiow 



