GREAT LAKES: LAKE ERIE. 661 



market. Many varieties of fish are exposed for sale, a large percentage being pike, bass, and perch. 

 The average selling price of all kinds is riot far from G cents a pound. 



The State hatching house of Michigan is located at Detroit, and is under the management of 

 Mr. Owen Chase. It is estimated that the house has a capacity for hatching 20,000,000 eggs. In 

 1879, however, they were unable to procure more than 11,000,000 wbitefish eggs. The house con- 

 tains 30 Holtou boxes and 75 glass jars. The hatchery has been in operation for five years and is 

 considered in every respect a success. Those who have the management of the establishment claim 

 that the results from the reproduction of fish give great encouragement in the work. There is said 

 to have been a great increase in the catch, especially in Lake Saint Clair. There are some, how- 

 ever, who are very skeptical on these points. 



DETROIT RIVER. The fisheries of Detroit River differ in character from those of any other 

 part of the Great Lakes. Between Windmill Point, at the head of the river, and Bar Point, at its 

 mouth, there are no less than thirty separate stations at which fishing is carried on. The only 

 form of apparatus in use is the seine. No pounds have ever been established in the river on account 

 of the swiftness of the current and the comparative shallowness of the water. At each of the 

 seining stations a small house has been built, and at each seining reach a pen is constructed of 

 planking, varying from a few feet square to an acre or two in size, in which the fish are kept, being 

 held for the winter market. The arrangement of ponds or pens is said to be not very satisfactory; 

 the fish, particularly in the smaller pens, die in great numbers, causing great loss to the fishermen. 

 The freshets, which occur from time to time in the river, bring great quantities of muddy water 

 into the pens, and the gills of the fish become clogged with various kinds of debris, so that large 

 numbers of them frequently die from this cause. About six of the stations are on the Canadian 

 side of the river, the remainder being partly on the islands, which exist in various parts of the 

 river, and on the American side. 



The seines used at these stations are about CO fathoms in length, 30 feet deep, and have a mesh 

 of from l^ inches to 2 inches, bar measurement. The boats used are simple skiffs 24 to 30 feet 

 long, usually manned by five to seven men. The seines are hauled every hour and are drawn in 

 by horse-power. The greater part of the fishing is carried on in the fall, usually from about the 

 1st of October to the 1st of December. 



The number of men at each fishery at the present time is not more than ten, but formerly six- 

 teen or eighteen men were hired for the fall work. There is usually a boarding place at each 

 fishery, established especially for the convenience of fishermen. 



The catch consists principally of whitefish and pike. A few days before the appearance of 

 the whitefish there is usually a run of herring, and at some of the fisheries a small mesh seine is 

 used for the purpose of taking them. Fishermen differ very much in their opinions regarding the 

 amount of fish taken. Mr. Clark, one of the principal fishermen on the river, stated that usually 

 not more than sixteen hauls were made in each twenty-four hours, and that usually forty fish were 

 taken at a haul. Others, on the contrary, said that the number offish taken at each haul did not 

 exceed ten. Mr. David Davis, another intelligent man engaged in the fishery here, was of the 

 opinion that at each fishery not more than 1,800 fish were taken during the season of 1879. He 

 also stated, however, that the season was an unusually poor one, and that formerly 4,000 fish were 

 not considered a large catch. 



The value of the apparatus in use at each fishery, including seines, boats, pens, and houses, 

 according to estimates made by Mr. J. P. Clark, would not exceed $1.000. The entire investment 

 in fishery apparatus on the river, therefore, will not exceed 830,000. 



MOUTH OF THE DETKOIT HITER TO TOLEDO. The principal villages at the east end of Lake 



