556 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



shore of Lake Ontario. The fishing vessels are now driven by steam 

 and gasoHne. The gasohne boats as a rule are only small lamiches 

 25 to 50 feet long, and they are engaged chiefly near shore in the 

 pound and trap-net fisheries (in which case they tow a rowboat) or 

 where gill nets are set in the shallow waters near the harbor. How- 

 ever, there are a few lar^e tugs that have installed modern, oil- 

 burning engines. Most of the steam tu^s are less than 65 feet in 

 length, since this is the maximum lengtli of a craft that may be 

 operated with an unlicensed pilot and engineer, and some expense in 

 salary for the pilot and engineer is thereby saved by the operators of 

 smaller tugs. Most of the pilots, however, own their boats, and 

 many of them are licensed. One of the largest tugs on the lakes, in 

 use out of Alpena on Lake Huron, is 97 feet long with 80 gross tons 

 displacement. Most of the boats are specially constructed for use in 

 fishing and the largest ones have a cruising radius of more than 100 

 miles. Gill nets are the chief apparatus employed by tugs. 



Until about 1891 gill nets were lifted by hand over a roller, but 

 since about 1900 the tugs have been equipped with automatic lifters. 

 There are two types of lifter, but the one most widely used is the 

 revolving drum bearing along its circumference two rows of rubber- 

 tipped teeth, which bite together and separate again as the drum 

 revolves. The cork and lead lines of the gill net are caught by several 

 teeth on one side of the drum and are carried along. As each pair 

 of teeth releases the lines after bearing them about half a revolution, 

 another pair closes over a new stretch of lines and in this manner the 

 nets are hauled aboard. The speed of revolution can be controlled 

 and the nets may therefore be lifted according to requirements. 



APPARATUS 



Hooks. — ^Large numbers of hooks are employed in certain fisheries, 

 but their most important use is in the capture of lake trout. For 

 trout fishing the hooks are tied to a fine line about 4 feet long, and 

 these lines are fastened at definite intervals along a heavy cord. The 

 length of the cord depends upon the number of hooks used and may 

 be several miles. Ordinarily 2,500 to 3,000 hooks are set in a hook 



fang. Small bloaters {Leucichihys Jioyi) — so-called because they 

 loat from the expansion of gas in the air bladder when brought to 

 the surface — serve as bait, and when the main cord is set on the bot- 

 tom these air-filled fish float the hooks off the bottom. The entire 

 gang may also be floated at any desired depth level by the use of air 

 cans. 



Seines. — Seines have long since become unprofitable for general use 

 and are now employed only in special fisheries. A seine is made of 

 heavy cotton netting, and as generally used in commercial fisheries 

 consists of a bag and wings. The wings are strips of netting not 

 more than 20 feet wide and of any desired length. They are fastened 

 on each side of the bag, which is only a pocket in which the fish are 

 collected. In operation a section of the shore waters is surrounded 

 by the extended wings, which are then drawn ashore, reducing the 

 area of inclosure and forcing the fish into the bag. 



Pound nets. — ^A pound net is constructed of coarse cotton netting 

 and is maintained in position by a series of stakes driven into the 

 bottom. The stakes are so arranged and the netting so employed 



