s 
BULLETIN 150, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
dimensions and methods of construction, being built in that shape 
and size best adapted to their respective locations. In size they 
vary from about 10 feet to about 30 feet in diameter and in width 
from about 5 to 15 feet. The wheel is so mounted, either in a per- 
manent structure built out from the shore or upon rocks in mid- 
stream, or upon a scow, which can be anchored in the desired situa- 
tion, that it is submerged partially in the water. The flow of the 
stream causes the wheel to revolve. " Buckets " of woven wire are 
built in the wheel in such a manner that as the wheel revolves they 
pass through the water as scoops, picking up the fish. Frequently 
series of piles are built extending out into the stream in such a way 
as to direct the fish into the wheel. Mounted in the axis of the 
wheel, or in some other suitable manner, is a trough-like receptacle 
for the fish. This is frequently built so as to empty into a scow. 
The curve of the scooplike bucket of the wheel is such that as the 
wheel revolves and the bucket is lifted, the fish in the bucket are 
made to slide toward the axis and finally to fall into the trough. 
This manner of fishing is practically automatic. During the season 
in which the salmon are moving upstream the method is satisfactory 
for supplying the demands of the packers. One hears reports of 
scows being sunk by fish taken during a night's operations. 
The catch of salmon in Alaska by the three principal forms of 
gear — seines, traps, and gill nets — is shown in the following table: 1 
Table II.- 
—Percentage of total catch of salmon by the three 
gear used in Alaska, for the year 1913. 
principal forms of 
Apparatus. 
Section of Alaska. 
Southeast- 
ern. 
Central. 
Western. 
Seines 
Per cent. 
48 
50 
2 
Per cent. 
47 
46 
7 
Per cent. 
2 
Traps 
4 
Gill nets 
94 
UNLOADING. 
The salmon are unloaded at the canneries (PL II, figs. 1 and 2) by 
being pitched, generally on two-pronged forks, into an elevator 
which deposits them upon the floor of the house in which they are 
to be cleaned. (PL III, figs. 1 and 2.) Here they are sorted into 
grades. As they lie in piles upon the floor streams of fresh water — 
in Alaska frequently icy cold and of a high degree of purity — are 
directed upon them. 
1 Bower and Fassett, The Fishery Industry of Alaska in 1913. Pacific Fisherman, 12, 
No. 1 (Special), 54 (1914). 
