256 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



Of the tributaries of Green Bay near Menominee Mr. Kumlein writes : 

 "Prom fifteen to thirty years ago the most profitable fishing grounds 

 were in the Menominee Eiver near its mouth. Here racks were con- 

 structed which caught the fish as they came down from spawning. On 

 such racks as high as GOO barrels of whitefish have been taken in one 

 autumn on a single rack." 



Mr. Eveland says that not a whitefish lias been caught in the river 

 for the past twelve years. As soon as the sawdust began polluting the 

 river the whitefish abandoned it. It was no unusual occurrence to take 

 600 barrels* of whitefish in a season twenty years ago, on one of the 

 Menominee Eiver racks. 



" Duluth, Minn., does not seem to have been much of a fishing point 

 until recently. Now the industry is assuming much greater propor- 

 tions than in 1879. The town itself is only a few years old." — (Statement 

 of Ludwig Kumlein, June, 1880.) 



Of Bayfield, Wis., Mr. Kumlein says : " The total number of men 

 employed in 1879 was 130. In 1880 there were over 200. Pounds have 

 been fished here for about twelve years. We could not learn that the 

 decrease had been at all alarming. Ashland Bay (Chequamegan Bay) 

 seems to have suffered the most, it is thought because pound nets 

 have been set there the longest. When a certain locality begins to show 

 signs of giving out, a new one is found, and a rest of a few years is said 

 in some cases to have restored the depleted waters. The present year 

 (1880) the fishing is said to be better than ever before, but it must be 

 remembered that the facilities for capture are better, the men more ex- 

 perienced, and the grounds better known. There is also more twine in 

 use than ever before." 



August 30, 1880, Messrs. W. W. Paddock & Co., of Ashland, Wis., 

 who own over 1,200 gill-nets, 23 pound-nets, and 7 seines, write: "There 

 seems to be only one-third of the whitefish caught near Ashland that 

 there formerly was." 



Of the fisheries of Lake Superior from Keweenaw Point to Huron 

 Bay, where the catch in 1879 was 8,000 barrels, mostly whitefish and 

 trout, Mr. Kumlein writes: "Whitefish are said to have decreased con- 

 siderably in fifteen years, especially in Keweenaw Bay." 



Mr. Kumlein, writing from Marquette of the fisheries extending 30 

 miles east and west of that place, says: " Fifteen to twenty years ago 

 the fishing was done almost entirely with hooks for trout and only with 

 gill-nets for whitefish. Pounds were not used till 1869. There is sup- 

 posed to have been a gradual decrease, especially among the whitefish 

 and trout. This is stoutly denied by some, who say the fish have merely 

 moved to grounds inaccessible to the fishermen, or not yet discovered 

 by them." 



Mr. Kumlein says of Whitefish Point: "This fishery was purchased 

 in 1870 by Jones & Trevalle, of Buffalo, jSTew York, who employ a steam- 

 tug, 2 Mackinaw boats, 2 pound-nets, 2 seines, and 36 box gill-nets. 

 Of late the fishing has not been so profitable as it was five or six years 



