The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-08-25
THE SALMON WHEEL.
The LATEST Scheme Ever Invented for
Capturing the Finny Tribe.

Capturing the Finny Tribe.
From the Liuern,ore Herald
The man who invented the Columbia
river salmon wheel was a genius. The
LATEST fisherman who ever baited hook
could ask no easier way of landing fish.
And only the fact that it can only be used
at certain points on the stream prevents
this machine from exterminating the sal
mon in one season. Imagine a common
undershot wheel, with the buckets turned
the wrong way about. This is set in high
narrow fume near the bank of the river,
where the current is very swift. From the
downstream end Of the flume. extended
outward at an angle of forty-five degrees,
are two upright fences, formed by pickets
driven closely together into the bottom of
the river, and wired to keep them from
washing away. Just above the wheel
(which is some ten feet in diameter), at the
upstream end, is platform, from which a
box fiume runs to the shore.
Now let us see how it works. When the
salmon are running, as everybody knows,
they come up in the Columbia river by
millions. The stream is very deep, and a
large percentage always succeed in getting
to the breeding grounds in safety. When
salmon are running up river they are con-
stantly on the lookout for small streams in
which to spawn. Also where the current is
very swift they are unable to make head
way in the center of the stream. and conse-
quently seek the more quiet water near the
bank. OF these two instincts, the inventor
of the fish wheel took a mean advantage.
At the Cascades, for instance, where the
water is very swift he sets his wheel. Here
comes the fish, hugging the bank by thou
sands-great black fellows, from to feet
long, heading resolutely up stream. Moth
ing can turn them backward That won
derful instinct Of nature which insures the
preservation of species is nowhere better
developed than in a salmon. But in this
instance it proves his destruction. Now
they are just below that widespread fence
The current which is rushing through the
1ume and turning the big wheel at a lively
pace attracts their attention. The upper
fence, which sets nearly square across the
stream makes quiet water here, and this
flow seems to come from the bank. This,
to the salmon's mind, is evidently the mouth
of a shallow creek. Here is a spawning
ground to our liking, and up this little
stream we go. So they crowd I'D between
the two narrowing fences toward the fatal
wheel. The first fish reaches it, goes with
rush to overcome the current, is caught
by bucket, and up he goes high in the air,
while every bucket brings up another and
another, till there is a procession of ascend
ing fish. At the top the velocity throws
O1O iloh NAOlOAAOAy uFOAk pAdOhOl jill
which he shoots down the fume to a great
tank on the shore. Here come the fish
crowding each other forward to that busy
wheel. None can go under nor to one side.
None will go back. And once a school
starts for a wheel, the owner can consider
that he has title deed to the entire lot.
One wheel will run cannery, Day and
night, while the run lasts, they come flying
up the wheel and shooting down the fiume
in continuous stream. Fortunately there
are but few places on the river where the
wheels can be worked with this result
Where the fish can keep in the middle of
the river few can be caught in this way.
But the men who control these points are
making fortunes. AS it is, salmon are
rapidly disappearing from the Columbia
Many oanneries are idle this season, and
the fishermen's price per fish is rising every
year. Surely this engine of destruction is
largely the cause,