FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 



231 



apron, for it is always the apron projecting down stream from the crest of a dam, that 

 stops the jumping fish. At Mechanicville, on the Hudson, the year before the fishway 

 was built, the salmon, from plants made in the upper waters, by the Fish Commission 

 of this State, of fry hatched from eggs furnished by the United States Fish Commis- 

 sion, gathered in considerable numbers below the dam (without an actual count, I 

 think there were 150 adult fish in a pool at one time), which they could not pass. 

 The water was shallow at the base of the dam and the fish could not get a fair start 

 for a leap, but leap they did, repeatedly, several being in the air at the same time, 

 until some killed and others injured themselves by striking on the apron thinly covered 

 with water. 



Already I have told how quickly the fish availed themselves of the fishway when 

 it was built ; and later in that season when the water was low and there was quite a 

 gathering of salmon at the mouth of a cool stream coming into the main river a short 

 distance below the dam, there came a heavy rain which raised the river and filled the 

 fishway, and, in six hours after there was not a salmon to be seen in the river below 

 the dam, as all had passed on up-stream through the fish pass provided for them. 



As to the cost of fishways, there can be no hard and fast rule, as conditions vary 

 with different obstructions and each dam and fall should be considered by itself and 

 estimates made upon existing difficulties that are to be overcome. Then, too, the time 

 of building a fishway must be considered. When the water is low, in mid-summer, 

 and the builder is reasonably sure of escaping freshets that may carry away his half- 

 finished work, the cost is less if the work is done by contract, then when the work is 

 undertaken in the autumn at a time when floods may be expected, even if they do 

 not come. 



The Binghamton fishway, of which there are two illustrations in this paper, cost 

 $2,000 and was built in the autumn at a time when the contractor did not wish to 

 undertake it as he had good reason to expect high water before he could complete it. 

 As it proved, the high water did not come until the work had progressed beyond the 

 danger point and he made money, as his contract price was based upon possible 

 injuries to a partly finished structure which he would have to replace at his own 

 expense. Rough figures of the cost of Rogers fishways in dams of given height may 

 be given as follows : 



5 to 7 feet high, 



10 

 12 



14 

 16 



$1,200 to $1,800 



1,800 " 2,000 



2,000 " 2,500 



2,500 " 3,000 



3>°oo " 3>5°° 



3,500 " 4,000 



