18 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISK AND FISHERIES. 



The standard of inspection, of the best inspectors, which is also ap- 

 proved by most of the dealers, though not establishing the grade by 

 weight, virtually makes the minimum weight of a No. 1 white-fish about 

 one and one-quarter pounds ; a No. 2 fish, about three-quarters of a pound ; 

 and the weight of a ISTo. 3 fish, from three-quarters of a pound to less; 

 this is after the head and entrails are removed. 



On counting pound-net fish, as they were repacked by dealers, fish- 

 ermen's uninspected packages, one hundred pounds, were found to con- 

 tain from one hundred to one hundred and eighty fishes; in the latter 

 case the fishes averaging less than nine ounces. Numbers of small 

 fishes, weighing from five to six ounces, are found in the x)Ound-net 

 packages. 



Certain localities, as the north shore of the lake^ have a large type of 

 fish; but of pound-net white-fish, taken in a season, throughout this lake 

 the average would not be above the No. 2 grade in weight. 



An advantage the pound-net has over the gill-net, or seine, iu warm 

 weather, is, that in a large catch of fish it is possible to take out just 

 such a quantity at a time as can be handled, leaving the rest alive, 

 and fresh until it is convenient to return for them. 



In the gill-nets the lift must all be brought ashore at once, and what can 

 be dressed and packed in a few hours are used, while the remainder 

 spoil and have to be thrown away. 



Pound-net fish are generally superior to gill-net fish to ship fresh, 

 because they are always fresh when put in the ice-boxes, while those 

 from the gill-nets may have been dead twenty-four hours or more. 



(16 b.) The gill-nets. — The white fish taken in the gill-nets, in Lake 

 Michigan, will average much higher than No. 2 fish. From reference 

 to the books of dealers in Chicago, and an extended observation of the 

 giU-uet fishing, it is evident that the entire catch of the lake would not 

 give as low an average w^eight as one and one-quarter pounds. The in- 

 spection of fishermen's shipments of gill-net fish seldom affords as low a 

 proportion of No. 1 fish, as one-half. . 



The reasons for the larger size of the gill-net fish are in the fiicts re. 

 ferred to on another page, in reference to the habit of the immature 

 white-fish to remain near the shore, the least depth employed for the 

 gill-nets, being twelve or fifteen fathoms, entirely outside of the range 

 of the smaller white-fish. 



The giU-nets destroy a great many fish in time of storms, when the 

 fishermen are not able to visit the nets for days at a time, two or three 

 days being sufficient during the summer months for the fish to die and 

 become tainted, when they are thrown overboard to rot on the fishing- 

 grounds, making it offensive to the white-fish and driving them away. 



Tlie gill-nets, when they are lost, destr(5y fish by entangling them un- 

 til the floats become water-logged and sink. They have been grappled 

 up, two years afterwards, while searching for nets recently lost, full of 

 decayed fish. This is quite an extensive agency of destruction, as a 



