MILNER FISHERIES OF THE GREAT LAKES. 15 



lias been opened, a large amount of fish has been shipped to the Chicago 

 market. 



13. — THE EVIDENCES OF THE DECREASE. 



Statistics to prove decrease are hard to. find, as but few records are 

 kept in the localities where the fish are caught; when they have been 

 preserved they show an evident diminution. 



The summing up of shipments from the pier at Two Rivers, Wis., affords 



the following: 



1867. 



Pounds. 



Fresh fish 332,000 



Salt fish, 6,351 packages 635,100 



1:!!68. 



Fresh fish 153,950 



Salt fish, 4,679 packages 407,900 



1869. 



Fresh fish...., 18.5,350 



Salt fish, 3,661 packages 366,100 



1870, 



Fresh fish 203,100 



Salt fish, 2,811 packages 281,100 



At this port the decrease has been fifty per cent, in four years. 



A firm in Mackinaw, receiving yearly a large amount offish, by reference 

 to their books gave the following figiu'es, as totals of shipment: In 1869, 

 17,000 packages, of one hundred poimds each; in 1870, 13,000 packages; 

 and though they had not carried out their records for 1871 , said they 

 would fall very much short of the figures for 1870. 



The best evidence of decrease in the numbers of the fish is the testi- 

 mony as to the few nets used formerly, with the same or greater success 

 than is had now with about three times as many. Formerly, too, many 

 of the nets were made of coarse cotton, not as well adapted for entan- 

 gling a fish as fine linen twine ; the mesh used was one-fourth of an inch 

 larger, and, it is claimed, the fishing was done much nearer shore. 



More labor, more expense, and more skill in the construction and use 

 of nets are required now than formerly, and for the capture of a less 

 quantity of fish. 



The white-fishes are smaller now than formerly ; in early times it 

 is said that on an average fifty gill-net fishes would make a half-barrel ; 

 now it requires about eightj' or ninety. 



Of the staple fishes taken in the lakes — white-fish, Coregonns albus ; 

 trout, Sahno namaycush ; herring, Coregonus clnpeiformis — there has 

 Iveen an evident decrease of the white-fish and the trout. 



Occasionally, after several years of small encouragement to the fish- 

 eries, at some point hopes are revived by a heavy run of fish upon the 

 shore. The investigation for decrease cannot be understood from the 

 quantities of fish taken at isolated places; the fishes are not by any 

 means distributed evenly throughout the lake, but range in large colonies 



