The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1888-10-25
TAKING A MEAN ADVANTAGE.
How the Columbia River salmon Wheel
Exterminates the Finny Tribe.

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
e1terminating the salmon in one season.
A writer in the Livermore Herald thus
describes it: Imagine common
uudershot 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 tiume, extended outward at an
angle of forty-tive degrees. are two up
right 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 a platform,
from which box-fume runs to the
shore.
Now let US see how itworks. When
the salmon are running, as everybody
knows, they come up in the Columbia
River by millions. The stream is very
deep and Il huge percentage always
succeed in getting to the breeding
grounds in safety. When salmon are
running up a river they are constantly
on the lookout for small streams in
which to spawn. Also where the cur
rent is very swift they are unable to
make headway in the center of the
stream, and consequently seek the
more quiet water near the bank. Of
these two instincts the inventor of the
fish wheel took mean advantage. AT
the Cascades. for instance, where the
water is very swift, he sets his wheel.
Here come the fish, hugging the
bank by thousands-the great black
fellows, from two to four feet long,
heading resolutely up stream. Moth
ing can turn them backward. That
wonderful instinct of nature which in
sllres the preservation of species is no
where better developed than in a
salmon. But in this instance it proves
his destruction. Now they are just be-
low that widespread fence. The cur
rent which is rushing through the
flume and turning the big wheel at
lively pace attracts their attention.
The uppess fence, which sets nearly
square across the stream, makes quiet
water here, and this flow seem to come
from the bank. This, to salmon's
mind, is evidently the mouth of
shallow creek Here is a spawning
ground to our liking, and up this little
stream we 90. So they crowd up be-
tween the two narrowing fences
toward the fatal wheel The first fish
reaches it, goes with a rush to over
come the current, is caught by a
bucket and up he goes high in the air.
while every bucket brings up another
and another, till there is procession
of ascending fish. At the top the
velocity throws the fish violently upon
the platform, from which he shoots
down the tlume to 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 school
starts for wheel the owner can con-
slider that he has title deed to the en-
tire lot.
One wheel will run a cannery. Day
and night while the run lasts, they
come flying up the wheel and shooting
down the tlume 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 CO.
lumbia. Many canneries are idle this
season, and the tisherman's price per
fish is rising every year. Surely this
engine of destruction is largely the
cause.