ABUNDANCE OF LAKE TItOOT. 495 



"On the Michigan shore of Lake Huron, about Thunder Bay, Lake Trout are very abundant 

 in August, and especially about Thunder Bay Island, where the men employed at the lite-saving 

 station gained quite a revenue by fishing for them. The best and most productive grounds in this 

 vicinity are near Harrison villo and southward along the coast for a few miles. There are some 

 fishing grounds north of North Point where all the Trout are said to be very large. In the vicinity 

 of Saginaw Bay they are abundant, but will not rank commercially higher than fourth or fifth. 

 Not many are taken in the pounds in Saginaw Bay, but the deep-water pounds, especially those 

 about the Charity Islands, obtain a few. In April few fish other than Trout are taken in the gill- 

 nets. In the vicinity of Port Huron they arc very abundant, and it is the prevailing opinion 

 among the fishermen that they are increasing in numbers, more being taken now than ever before. 

 Very few enter the Detroit River. In the western part of Lake Erie, about Toledo, they are 

 exceedingly rare, and unknown to many of the fishermen at Port Clinton. No instance of their 

 capture is on record, and at Locust Point they occur only very rarely. About the islands off 

 Sandusky they have in two or three instances been captured, and at the other fisheries in this 

 vicinity local authorities do not think that more than five or sis are taken in the course of a year. 

 About Huron and Vermillion, Ohio, they are also very rare. It sometimes happens that one or two 

 are taken in the course of a year's fishing; those which are here taken are always small, scrawny, 

 and sickly. The same statements are made concerning Black River and Cleveland. Some are 

 taken at Cleveland, but never more than three or four in a year. About fourteen years ago four 

 were taken in Brownhelm Bay, but none since. They have never been taken at Black River; a man 

 who has fished there for twenty-five years has never seen one. In the vicinity of Couneaut, Ohio, 

 a few are occasionally taken in the spring. At Painesville, Ohio, they are rare. In 1809 only a 

 single specimen was taken, and in 1878 only six. The wandering gill-netters who fish off Paines- 

 ville sometimes capture a few in deep water. The only locality in Lake Erie where they are 

 at all abundant is at Barcelona, New York, where there is said to be an extensive spawning 

 ground five or six miles long, and about three miles from the shore. Some years ago the fisher- 

 men used to load their boats with Trout, sometimes as many as eighteen hundred pounds of 

 dressed fish being taken with a small gang of nets. At Conneaut a few are taken in the spring. 

 In the eastern end of Lake Erie they are caught to some extent, especially in the very dee]) water 

 of}' Erie Bay, though they are not very plentiful. Off Dunkirk they are much more common, and 

 in I860 a specimen four and one-half feet in length, weighing seventy pounds, was captured. The 

 fish dealers of Erie, Pennsylvania, claim that the Trout here taken are very different from those 

 of Lake Superior; as a rule, only those with white meat are found. 



"In Lake Ontario, especially in its eastern portion, about Cape Vincent, they are very abund- 

 ant, and in the headwaters of the Saint Lawrence, as far down as Alexandria Bay; they enter the 

 river only in winter and for the purpose of feeding. In abundance they rank far below the white- 

 fish, three times as many white-fish as Trout being usually taken. In CLaumont Hay they are 

 becoming less common, and at the present time are not very abundant, ranking sixtli in importance, 

 while at Cape Vincent they are third. The Trout handled at Chaumont are almost entirely from 

 Canada, and the dealers do not depend upon the supply from American waters. At Oswegn the\ 

 are caught in the lake, though not entering the Oswego River. They are not plentiful at Port 

 Ontario, although they have been in some seasons past. Since alewives came few Trout have been 

 caught. The alewives are now so abundant that the Trout do not come near the shore to seek for 

 food. In 1860 thirteen hundred pounds were caught in one night on five hundred hooks." 



