SALMON AND SALMON FISHERIES OF SWIFTSTJRE BANK 
779 
In 1899 both the trap and gill-net fisheries, especially the latter, were quite 
intense, resulting in a catch of 11,400,000 sockeyes. This catch does not appear to be 
excessive in relation to the index of abundance when compared to the catches of the 
big years. On the other hand, there is a possibility that the escapement in 1899 (no 
surveys were made of the spawning grounds) was much less than the mere comparison 
of the catch with the level of abundance would indicate, as neither the trap nor the 
gill-net data point to any late run in 1899, although the evidence is not conclusive. 
This same cycle had a late run in 1887, mentioned in the Dominion Report for that 
year, which states that many sockeyes were caught as late as October, which was very 
unusual. In all of the big-year cycles, from 1901-1913, very abundant late runs 
appeared after most of the fishing had ceased and provided heavy escapements. 
Since there is no evidence of a late run in 1899, it is quite possible that the catch was 
too heavy to allow a sufficient escapement. 
Some have ascribed this fall in abundance to the blocking of the Quesnel River by 
a dam at the outlet of Quesnel Lake, built in 1898, which caused the majority of the 
sockeyes reaching the dam to die below it without spawning, until after the con- 
struction of a fishway in 1904. That some of the sockeyes could not ascend the race is 
quite possible but that the majority did not enter the lake would seem to be refuted 
by the run of several millions that passed into the lake in 1905. If none spawned 
there in 1901, the run of 1905 cannot reasonably be accounted for. 
The darn and fishway are thoroughly described in the British Columbia Com- 
missioner’s Report for 1904. The dam was 18 feet high and the race was 124 feet 
wide and 382 feet long, with a drop of only 6 inches. At the head of the race there were 
9 gates, each 12 feet wide. At the time of the sockeye run the water in the race was 
said to average 4 or 5 feet in depth, with a velocity of 12-14 feet per second. The 
fishway was merely a walled-in section along one side of the race. It was 26 feet wide 
and every 25 feet timbers 2 feet high were placed on the bottom to form an inverted 
V pointing upstream. The fishway led to two of the gates, one of which was kept 
open during the sockeye run. 
The dam was constructed for the purpose of shutting off the waters of Quesnel 
Lake in the fall of the year in order that mining operations could be carried on in the 
bed of the Quesnel River. Obviously the lake was permitted to become as low as 
possible during the summer so that the gates were merely openings through which the 
lake water flowed into the race. 
In 1905 the wall separating the fishway proper from the race was washed out, 
but the fish continued to ascend, and a low wall was substituted for the former high 
one. It is obvious that the problem was not passage through the gates but merely 
that of getting the sockeyes through the race. There would appear to be little doubt 
but that the majority of the sockeyes passed this obstruction. That a matter of 
some thousands could not, should be regarded as of no greater moment than the 
residue that fail to negotiate any fall or rapid of any consequence in a natural stream. 
Since the first great decline in this cycle, between 1899 and 1903, there has been 
a further decrease. From 72.6 in 1903 the combined index fell to 40.2 in 1907, due, 
as before, to overfishing. Remembering the good pack of 1899, large preparations 
were made in 1903, resulting in a catch of 4,300,000. The traps were numerous and 
the number of gill nets was exceeded only in 1900 and 1901. It is not surprising 
