The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-01-24
NUMBER 10.
The Salmon wheel.


"Barrels are plenty this morning, cap
tain. This is the third we have met dur
ing the last twenty minutes. Where de
they come fromP'
It was Captain John Fl. Wolf, the
veteran master of the Columbia River
steamer "Wide West" which affords q
much pleasanter journey than the cars
from Bonneville to the Dalles.
"Well, sir" said the captain in reply,
''tInv cnme from the Cascades. If you
i Il! in.ine any one of them you
u. II Dc surprised. You wouldn't im-~
agine, would you, that those barrels,
though empty, carry a more valuable
cargo under than most casks do in them?
Those barrels are buoys. They sustain
each about 200 pounds weight of salmon,
alive, strung through the eyes, on their
way to the canneries down the river.
There they have little steam launches
which pick up every one and tow them
in"
Chow are so many fish caughtf I
haven't noticed any nets to-day"
'Netsi are of no account now. Go
and see the Snail" said the captain, as
he bent over and strung the slowing bell
for the Dalles.
Some time after 1 saw the "Snail,"
IL,
BILE engine of destruction it was. The
above the Upper Cascades, on the north
at that point almost impossible to the
fish. 1t was placed just where the swift
edge of the current makes a most invit-
ing eddy, through which the salmon must
naturally "run" on their way upstream
Here the current was about eight feet
deep. The salmon never swim lower
than four feet below the surface
Erected over what would be the entire
width of the "run" was huge frame.
Suspended within this an immense wheel
revolved, SO adjusted on pulleys as to rise
and fall with the changing depth
of water. Upon the spokes or arms
of this wheel, eight in number,
were fastened as many wire-nets each
thirty feet in diameter, loose and
baggy and movable, resembling in ap-
pearance the pouch of a pelican. The
current itself is the force that turns the
whell like an undershot. Very slowly it
goes around. The great scoop nets spread
lazily through the water, one after an
other, at Just the depth where they are
most fatal. Their arms almost pause
and float motionless through the stream.
Dut, Luc great WHEEL,
called from its motion the "Snail," does
move, and with just the right tardiness,
for as the nets emerge from the water
they are SO filled with the struggling
prey that Mr. Williams, owner of one of
the wheels, pronounced 800 an average
amount. At the proper angle above, the
net is turned upside down. Its contents
are dumped along the arm of the wheel
to what might be termed its hub, strik-
ing which they rebound along a trough
to the bank. 1t is a stirring but cruel
sight, for there are many small and un-
marketable fish in every thaul." The
theory is that these are returned to the
water and live, but it is like the "returns
of the killed and wounded" after a bat
tle-so stunned and MANNED are they
that but few survive. The wheel pre-
sents busy scene, and the profits must
be enormous, for the simple contrivance
costs but about S400, and requires but
half dozen attendants. There are four
of these wheels on the river, and a gen.
tleman engaged in the fishing business
informed me that the calculation was
they caught about half the salmon that
go up. There is wheel on Bradford's
Island, above Bonneville, the work of
which has become so notorious (not
merely killing merchantable fish, but in
so doing destroying a dozen times as
many of size as yet too small for COM
merce) that the public press has de-
manded its suppression. But all these
wheels, as has been said, are ''the produc-
ton of brain which aims to live with
out work" Probably from 1900 to
5000 salmon (for proprietors of wheels
are very ,chary about giving actual fig
ures), large and small, are caught every
hour, night and day, of the week, save
from Saturday to Sunday night. Com
pute the amount / know of one actual
catch of 6, 400 salmon in day-large
fish, suitable for canneries. An expe-
rienced fisherman stated it as the result
of his observation that about one in ten
of those caught were used. Even of the
number used, packed, and sent down in
barrels, one wheel kept the large can
merry at Warren1ale busy all through the
season, and then the cannery couldn't
take care of all.--Colun6ia Ripsr Cor.
N. Y. EUeninQ Post.