FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 227 



The interior of an enclosed fishway should be large enough for a man to pass 

 through for inspection and repairs or cleaning, and be constructed as simply as possible 

 and at the same time permit it to perform its office, that fish may pass through with- 

 out encountering complicated details of construction to confuse them and which serve 

 chiefly to catch drift that clogs the "buckets" and "stops," and renders the fishway 

 useless for the purpose for which it was built. The slope of a fishway must also be 

 considered carefully in its relation to the height of the dam. The earlier fishways 

 were built with a rise of but one foot in from ten to sixteen, and one dam twenty-nine 

 feet high had an inclined fishway 450 feet long, and it was calculated that a fish 

 in passing through it would have to travel 1,500 feet in following the devious channel 

 caused by the arms or buckets projecting from either side of the interior of the pass 

 to retard the flow of water. This, however, must have been an improvement upon a 

 natural fishway that I once examined. An application had been made to this Com- 

 mission for permission to build a dam on a large stream in the State and the Commis- 

 sioners referred the application to me for an examination and report. The manager 

 informed me that no fishway would be required as the dam itself would contain a 

 number of natural fish passes. These I found to be gates at the base of the dam and 

 on a level with the river bottom, to let off the water when it reached a certain height 

 in the pond, and I asked what the pressure would be to the square inch. "What has 

 the water pressure to do with it?" "Everything; as it will determine whether or 

 not you will have to build a fishway over the dam." 



That was something which had not been thought of, and as the water pressure 

 would be over nine pounds to the square inch with the water level with the crest of 

 the dam, and it was not proposed to open the gates until the water was about two 

 feet above it, there is now a very substantial fishway over the dam. 



The rise in Cail's improved fishway is one foot in four without reference to the 

 height of the dam in which it is built ; but it is different in construction from any 

 other shown in the illustrations. The rise of the slope in the McDonald fishway is 



There were originally four fishways in this dam built jointly by the State of Pennsylvania and the 

 State of New York, and when they needed to be repaired, the Pennsylvania Fish Commission notified 

 the Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission and the matter was referred to me for an examination of 

 these fishways and a report. The examination proved to my own satisfaction that the shad would 

 naturally follow the Pennsylvania shore rather than the New York shore, and furthermore that two 

 fishways, on the Pennsylvania side, were sufficient to pass the shad above the dam and New York 

 received little, if any, benefit from shad going above the dam, and my report embodied these opinions 

 with the recommendation that any available money for fishways should be spent in erecting them 

 where they would more certainly benefit the people of New York State. My report, adopted by this 

 Commission, was a disappointment to my friend, the late Mr. Ford, who was then President of the 

 Pennsylvania Commission ; but I am glad to be able to record Mr. Peck's statement, even at this 

 late day, showing that the report was well grounded, and the opinions therein, now confirmed by facts 

 not obtainable at the time of the examination, justifies the action of this Commission. A. N. C. 



