FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 225 



action against the owner or person in possession, or both, in the name of the people, and shall, 

 in addition to the personal liability of such owner or person in possession be a lien upon the 

 premises upon which such dam is situated. The person refusing or neglecting to comply with 

 such directions of the commissioners as to construction or repairs shall also be liable to a penalty 

 of ten dollars for each day during which they neglect to obey such directions, which penalty 

 may be recovered in like manner in the same or a separate action. 



Section 264. No person or persons, association, corporation or company shall build, place 

 or maintain any rack, screen, weir or other obstruction across any of the creeks, streams or 

 rivers of the state inhabited by fish protected by law that will prevent the passage of fish from 

 one point to another point in said waters except as provided in section one hundred and forty- 

 three of the fisheries, game and forest law. Whoever shall violate or attempt to violate the pro- 

 visions of this section by placing, maintaining or causing to be placed or maintained any rack, 

 screen, weir or other obstruction to prevent the passage of fish as aforesaid shall be deemed 

 guilty of misdemeanor and in addition thereto shall be liable to a penalty of fifty dollars for 

 each rack, screen, weir or other obstruction built or maintained in violation of this section. 



The exception referred to as provided in Section 143, is a provision for maintaining 

 eel weirs in certain waters. 



In addition to what is known as the Fishway Law, quoted in full above, chapter 

 498 of the Laws of 1895, provides for the construction of fishways in private dams in 

 the counties of Saint Lawrence and Franklin. 



In consequence of the fishway laws quoted and referred to, now in force in this 



State, the Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission is often appealed to for information 



in regard to a form of approved fishway and for other information in regard to such 



fish passes, and this article is written to describe, with accompanying illustrations, the 



forms of some of the best working fishways. The fishway, fish pass or fish ladder is 



more than a hundred years old in its salient features, and as its various names imply, 



is to enable fish of different species to pass over natural and artificial obstructions in a 



stream to reach spawning grounds, better pasturage or escape from foul waters. More 



than fifteen years ago the United States Fish Commission gave as a remedy for the 



decrease in the food fish supply this formula : 



First. Enactment of such legislation as will control excessive fishing, and prohibit 

 destructive methods. Second. Compensating for the insufficient natural supply by artificial pro- 

 pagation and planting. Third. Extending the area of breeding and feeding by overcoming 

 natural obstructions by means of fishways. 



The first and second propositions have been adopted and practiced most vigorously, 

 while the third, equally important in many respects, has been adopted only spas- 

 modically. There will be no attempt here to enumerate all the different forms of 

 fish passes, most of them patented, and several of them differing but little in design, 

 that have been or now are in use in the United States, but the Brackett, the Pike, the 

 Foster, the Atkins, the Swazey, the Brewer, the McDonald, Cail's improved, and the 

 Rogers, are the better known. 

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