NOTES ON THE FISHERIES OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 
245 
There is no doubt that the natural conditions in the Clackainas are extremely 
favorable for the breeding of salmon, and the foregoing statement of the catch in that 
stream in 1893 and 1891 clearly indicates that an enormous annual production of young 
salmon might be depended on if the fish were not subject to capture and obstruction. 
It is equally true that nouinterfereuce with the salmon which have escaped the traps, 
seines, and gill nets of the Columbia and reached the Clackamas would permit the 
hatching station there located to liberate enough young salmon each year to go far 
toward repairing the diminution in the supply caused by excessive fishing, 
Mr. L. T. Barin, who has been lishing on the Columbia and its tributaries for more 
than thirty-four years, informed me that, as a result of his personal observations in 
every important branch of the Columbia, he has no hesitation in affirming that the 
Clackamas always was and still is the best tributary salmon stream in the whole basin. 
The continuance of present conditions, however, can not fail to have a far-reaching 
effect on the abundance of salmon in the lower Columbia River, and an accelerated 
diminution of Chinooks may be depended on as a direct result of the obliteration of 
the run into the headwaters of the Clackamas. 
Notes oil apparatus and the catch . — Under this head some genei'al notes on the 
principal forms of apparatus and the catch in each may be presented, and some detailed 
statistics, showing the yield of certain nets in 1892 to 1891, may be introduced. 
As is well known, gill nets take larger quantities of chinook salmon than all other 
nets combined. While the proportion of tish thus obtained naturally varies from year 
to year, the gill net yield always so far overbalances the remaining catch that it affords 
an accurate basis for determining the abundance of the tish, while it is evident that 
any regulations intended to increase the supply of Chinooks must have primary 
application to the gill-net fishery. The importance of the gill net as a factor in the 
taking of Chinooks will be clearly seen from the following comparative statement of 
the number of these fish obtained on the Columbia River, with all forms of apparatus 
and with gill nets alone, during the period of five years beginning 1889: 
Statement of the total number of chinook salmon iaken on the Columbia Eiver from 1889 to 1893, with 
the number and jnercentage of those caught with gill nets. 
Year. 
Tolal 
catch. 
Gill-net catch. 
Number. 
Percent- 
age. 
1889 
772, 425 
478, 097 
61.90 
1890 
942, 884 
580, 871 
61.61 
1891 
963. 779 
657, 133 
68. 18 
1892 
916, 833 
578,912 
63. 14 
1893 
872, 317 
544, 984 
62. 48 
Total 
4, 468, 238 
2, 839, 997 
63.56 
The employment of small-meslied gill nets has of late been increasing, and in 
1894 was more extensive than ever before. The regular mesh of salmon gill nets is 
8.^ to 94 inches, while the smaller-meshed nets which have been coming into use have 
a 7-inch mesh. 
The principal reason for the increase in the use of small-meshed nets has been 
the change in basis for selling the catch effected in 1893. Prior to that time the 
gill-net fishermen were paid so much per fish regardless of size, although two fish 
under a given weight (22 pounds) were required to count as one full-sized fish. The 
