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The Salmon Murdered

The Salmon Murdered image
Parent Issue
Day
24
Month
November
Year
1882
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

ColumbiaRivük, Sept. 27.- "How are so many ösh caught? I haven' noticed ajy nets." "iïets are of üo account now. Go and see the snail, said the captain a he bent over and rang the slowing bel for Dalles. Sotne time after I saw the "snail,' and a most ingenious, successful, de testable engine of destruction it was The owner had adriir;ibly planted i just above the Upper Cascades on the north bank of the river, the south bank being at that point almost im passable to the flsh. It was placed just where the swift edge of the cur rent makes a most inviting eddy through which the salmón must natur ally "run" on their way up stream. Here the current was about eight feet deep. The salmón never swim lower than four feet below the surfuce. Erected over what would be the entire width of the "run" was a huge frame. Suspended within this an immense wheel revolved, so ad j usted on pulleys as to rise and fall wilh the changing depth of water. Upon the spokes or arms of this wheeï, eight in number, were fastened as many wire nets, each thirty feet in diameter, loose and baggy and movable, resembling in appearance the pouch of a pelican. The current itself is the force that turns the wheel like an undershot. Very slowly it goes around. The great scoop nets spread lazily through the water, one after another, at j ist the depth where they are most fatal. Their arras aimost pause and lloat motion leas through the stream. But thoug slowly, the great whpel, called from this rootion the "snail," does rnov and with just the right tardiness, fo as tho nets emerge from the water the ai e so filled with tho struj gling prey that Mr. Williams, owne of one of the wheels, pronounced 80 an average catch. At the proper an gle above the net is turned upsid down. lts contenta are dumped along the arm of the wheel to what might b turned its hub, striking which the rebound along a trough to the bank It is a stirring but cruel sight fo there are many small and unmarketable flsh in every "haul." The theor is that these are return ed to the wate and live, but it is like the "returns o the killed and wounded" after a battl - so stunned and maimed are they tha but few survive. The wheel presentís a busy scene.am tne prouts must be enormous; tor th simple contri vanee coste but about $40 and requires but a half dozen attendauts. There aro four of these wheels on the river, and a gbntleman engaged in the fishing business informad me that the calculation wa3 they caught about haif the salmón that go up There is a wheel on Bradford's island, above Bonneville, the work of which has become so notonous not merely killing merchantable fish, but in so doiirg destroying a dozen times as many of a size as yet too small forcommerce that the public press has demanded its suppression. But all those wheela, as has been said, are the production of a brain which aims to live without work. Probably from 2,500 to 8,000 salmón (tor proprietors of the wheels are very chary about giving aetual figures), large and smal), are caught every hour, .tJgUU lili. VltírT Vi. Jl_il_, II ,,j OUt I U i i Ulii Saturday to Sunday night. Compute the amount. I know of one actúa catch of 6,400 salmón in a single day - large fïsk suitable for the canneries An experieneed fisherman stated it as the rea uit of his observation that abou one in ten of those caught were used Even of the number uaed, packed an( sent down in barrels, one wheel kep the large cannery at Warrendale busy all through the seasou, and then the cannery couldn't take care of all! Looking at the descendingtreani o half dead fiuh literally "broken on the wheel." I could not but regardj the question for a moment in the light of an angler and an economist. Slean while, day and night, the "barbaroua and murderous" (1 am using an intelli gent fisherman's phrase) "SDail" whee is kept going, and the salmón are liter ally corralled by millions in tho very haunts where they go to bring forth their kind. Meanwhile, too, all alonj the Sound to Alaska, the larger part oJ the fish so plentifuliy caught is wasted, just as the buffalo were in Montana, and the tendency is to the same result - extinction. What will become of an industry which supports 10,000 men when the price of its product has fallen three-fourths during the past few years?

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Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Democrat