REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. XCIX 



one end of which is tied to a limb and the other allowed to hang 12 to 

 18 inches under water. The hooks are baited with "shad" (Hiodon, 

 Dorosomu, Signalosa, etc.) or crawfish. The fisherman visits his lines 

 twice a day if possible, takes the fish ofl^' the hooks and puts them in 

 live-boxes, where he keeps them until the collecting tug from the com- 

 pany to which he sells comes along. The fish are then transferred to 

 the live-cars of the tug and towed to Morgan City. The Morgan City 

 tugs ascend the AtchafalayaEiver and its connecting lakes and bayous 

 for 75 to 100 miles north of Morgan City. When the fish are brought 

 to Morgan City, they are dressed, barreled in ice, and shipped to vari- 

 ous points in Texas, Indian Territory, Kansas, Colorado, and elsewhere 

 west and northwest. The principal species handled are the blue cat 

 {Ictalurvs furcatus) and the goujon or yellow cat [Leptoiis oUvaris), 

 A small percentage of the catch consists of the spotted or channel cat 

 [Ictcdurns imnctattis) and the eel cat {Ictalurns angiiiUa). 



The blue cat and the goujon reach a very large size. Formerly indi- 

 viduals of each weighing 75 to 110 pounds were not infrequent, but 

 now one weighing more than 50 pounds is not often seen. The flesh of 

 these fish is of excellent flavor and finds a ready sale wherever its good 

 qualities are known. 



The statistical inquiry very soon developed the fact that there has 

 been a very great decrease in the catch during the last few years, and 

 a careful inspection of the fish in the live-boxes of the fishermen and 

 again in the companies' houses at Morgan City suggested the causes 

 for the decrease. Overfishing and fishing during the spawning season 

 are doubtless the principal causes. 



A law fixing a minimum size of the fish which it is lawful to sell, 

 and a close season during the height of the spawning period, would 

 doubtless do much toward the rebuilding of the industry. 



During tlie inquiries valuable collections of the different species of 

 catfishes and other fishes of the region were made. 



LAKE SUPERIOR. 



In April, 1897, Mr. A. J. Woolman was detailed to make some 

 inquiries in Lake Superior during the subsequent spring and summer 

 months, relative to the food of the j)rincipal fishes found in the lake, 

 including the common whitefish, the lake herring, other species of 

 whitefishes, the lake trout, the siscowet, the wall-eyed pike, and the 

 sturgeon. Besides enumerating the food objects of each species, the 

 inquiries were intended to bring out the variations in the character 

 of the food dependent on age, size, season, si)awning condition, etc.; 

 the distribution, abundance, and habits of the food-organisms were 

 al.-o topics to be studied. A knowledge of the food of the predaceous 

 species involves a study of the food of the fishes on which they sub- 

 sist, and the investigation is therefore thrown back on a study of the 

 minute life of the lake, the most important forms probably being the 

 entomostraca. 



