A FISHING WHEEL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 703, 29 November 1881, Page 3

A FISHING WHEEL.

A new and very destructive fishing device is reported from the Colombia River, .Oregon. It consists of a jetty of rocks built pot from a point on the shore of the river, outside of which is a plank';d sluiceway, in which an undershot whee| with large tank buckets revolves. According to the Scientific American, t' e sluiceway was bnilt when the river was Btits lowest stage of water, and the wheel is hung so that it can be raised or lowerpd as may be desired, "according to stacre of water. The instinct of the salmon is to run up the river alongside of the hanks instead of mid-channel. By this the fish can take advantage of thp eddies jnst below jutting points of On these projecting points the Indians have, from time immemorial, taken safmon in largo numbers by using dip nets. The jeify built out from the point named above makes a larger and longer slack-water behind it. ind the salmon rounding the point, rush into the sltiice-way to get up the river, In the sluiceway the wheel, which revolves in the current, is gnagpd so as to swepp within a foot of the bottom, and the salmon are scooped up in tanks or buckets, which latter let out the water as they ascend. On the wheel de- - ascending the fish are thrown out into a trough or gutter fading into a ppn below, where they remain until taken away to be canned.. The 1 arrangement of i he clnice, wheel, etc., it-.a'very ingenious and most BOoeessFwl on*, th« ea»eh of adult salmon, Which nre the only? one* eanned, ranging ' from 1500 id 460dlf»fc day. Ther« is no exjj&ttse in- taking the fis'i . save attending t» ffie pen. As the fip.hermm who take salmon in boats in the '.'ljpwer ' dolnmbia River demand and teceiva from 50 to 60 cents per fi»h from sb« canneries, one can readily tee wlifcte,

vast profit the use of the wheel makes to tliecmnery connected with it A fatal .-.bj''c;i-n t<> 'his device arises from the fact that it K.oops up and kills li'tle fish as weli as big ones, and as yet no provision is inside, in connection with it, for the escape of the former. Unless the threatened wholesale killing of salmon too Miriirfor canning is prevented, the supply will be entirely cut off, and the entire canning indns:ry destroyed, if the wheel comes into general use,