MECHANICAL SALMONFISHING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8674, 14 July 1906, Page 4

MECHANICAL SALMONFISHING.

TAKING PISH UNINJURED.

Those who are familiar, with the conditions of salmon-fishing in the rivers of Scotland and England only would stand aghast if they were to see the manner in which the king of fishes is caught in the rivers of the north-west of America. It is well known that salmon born in a certain stream always return to it from their sojourn in the ocean. . After swimming the length of some of the rivers of North America, the fish are so exhausted that they frequently swim into shallow water and -die if they are not captured. The' salmon fisheries which, have been erected on these rivers have adopted a novel device for capturing the fish when he returns to the waters in which he was hatched. This consists of a huge wheel, sometimes as large a© fifty feet in diameter, which ish fixed in such a way as to be driven by the rapid stream, much as an underthrow water-wheel is driven. The descending side of the wheel presents a long, scoop-shaped' device made of wooden ribs and netting, and in this the fish aare entangled, carried out of the water, and pitched into a separate tank to await their fate. By this device as much as fifty tons has been taken from a single wheel during twenty-four hours. t . Perhaps the finest aquarium in thfe world is that of New York. Here is explained the extraordinary principle on which it obtains some of its finest specimens. There are many rare fish that wi'l not take a bait, but, like most fish, they are hill of curiosity. The specimen-huniter is provided with a long-handled landing-net. At one end of the handle is fixed a percussion cap, hidden in a bunch of grass. From the percussion cap a wire runs to an electric storage battery slung by the fisherman's side. Thus, when . a switch is actuated the cap can be exploded. Wading in the water, the fisherman, on seeing a rare fish, pushes the bunch of grass towards it, when the fish swims nearer, to find out what the waving grass is. At the right moment the percussion cap is exploded ; the coincuesion in the water momentarily etuns th& fish, which, by reversing the handle, is at once secured by the landing-net. The fish is not, of course, injured in any way. , ■