258 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Upper /Salmon Falls . — These falls are situated about 25 miles below Auger Palls, 
and have beeu sufficiently described in the report of the investigation of 1893. Salmon 
pass over these falls in considerable numbers. A fishery has been maintained more 
or less regularly each year near Lewis’s Ferry, about 4 miles above these falls. During 
last October, Mr. E. E. Sherman operated a seine at this place and caught about 300 
salmon. He regarded this as very poor fishing, and finally abandoned this ground and 
went to Glenn Ferry, where he hoped for better success. 
From Upper Salmon Falls down for more than a mile the river is, for the most 
part, full of short rapids and irregularities; about 2 miles below the falls is a consid- 
erable rapid at the head of a large island owned by Mr. Liberty Millet. At the head 
of this island, in the main stream, which flows to the left of the island, is the largest 
and most important salmon spawning- ground of which we know in Snake River. The 
spawning-bed is at the foot of the rapids and is on gravel bottom where the water is 
from 1 to 5 feet deep. From this island down for about 5 miles the river is compara- 
tively quiet; there are a few very swift places, but nothing that would interfere with 
salmon until Lower Salmon Falls are reached. 
Lower Salmon Falls . — These falls are very similar to the Upper Salmon Falls and 
are situated about 6 miles below them. Through most of their width these falls are 
20 to 30 feet in vertical descent, but at about a third of their width from the right bank 
are two places where the lava ledge has become worn or broken down so as to mate- 
rially decrease the vertical portion. At the top of each of these chutes the water 
takes a vertical drop of about 10 feet, and then descends 20 or 30 feet more in a boiling, 
seething rapid before reaching comparatively quiet water. 
Toward the left bank of the river the ledge is broken up into benches resulting in 
irregular series of shorter tails, up which salmon are able to go, only, however, with 
more or less difficulty. The facilities for observing the salmon ascending the left por- 
tion of the falls were not good, as it was impossible to reach any point from which one 
might watch any portion where the salmon attempted the ascent. But by taking a 
boat below the falls on the right bank one can cross to some exposed portions of the 
ledge at the right side of the first of the chutes already mentioned, and from this point 
the entire length of the chute can be watched. 
I first visited these falls September 16, and, crossing over to the ledge, spent some 
time watching the salmon jumping. We saw some thirty or thirty-five attempts made 
by salmon to ascend the falls, but all failed; these attempts likely represent only a 
few different fish, as each fish probably made more than one attempt. During the 
time we watched 1 never saw more than two fish in the air at the same time. The fish 
kept to the water until within 10 to 20 feet of the foot of the vertical portion. Our 
first sight of the fish would be when he shot out of the water like an arrow speeding 
toward the top of the falls; for 10, 15, and often 20 feet he sustains himself in the air, 
and then drops into the turbulent water at the foot of the falls, or strikes the column 
of falling water at some point below the lip of the ledge; occasionally he strikes near 
the top where the water is scarcely vertical, and then, with every muscle strung to its 
utmost tension, the body quivering in every inch of its length, he fights the descending 
torrent, retaining his position perhaps for several moments; but the contest is an 
unequal one and the salmon is finally carried down and into the pool below, perhaps 
to renew the fight after a period of rest. Often the leaping salmon would strike in 
the seething water at the foot of the fall and there he would sustain himself at the 
