b KEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OB^ FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Beginning at 8outh Chicago, near the head of the lake, there were 

 ten i)ound-nets, distributed along about eleven miles of coast, lying 

 three miles to the north and eight miles to the south of the Calumet 

 Eiver. Unlike pound-net men in other portions of the lake, they here 

 seek to catch every variety of fish, finding sale to the peddlers of every- 

 thing but the dog-fish, Amia calra Lin. 



At Chicago there were six boats fishing with trot-lines off the mouth 

 of the river; their catch being almost entirely the perch, Ferca flaves- 

 ^cens. One man is employed during the season at Milwaukee catching 

 bait, shipping tubs full of minnows daily. 



There has been no net-fishing here for years, the few experiments 

 made proving fiiilures. It is quite possible, now the filthy current of 

 the river no longer flows into the lake, that there may be some success 

 with nets. 



At Evanston, the pouud-net fishing was of ver^' much the same char- 

 acter as at Calumet. At both points they have a spring and fall season, 

 taking out the nets in hot weather, when the fish leave the shoal waters. 



From Lake Forest and Waukegan to the Wisconsin line were twenty- 

 seven pound-nets, fishing for both the fresh and salt fish markets. In this 

 region comparatively few fishes are taken other than the white-fish. One 

 proprietor has built a smoke-house, preparing and boxing the smaller 

 white-fishes for the Chicago market, where they are sold as smoked 

 herring. If there w^ere no other objection to the capture of the small 

 white-fish, than their useless destruction, this could be easily remedied 

 by disposing of them in this way, as they find a (juick and profitable 

 sale, the demand being for in excess of the supply. 



The season here is diifereut from most other parts of the lake. Instead 

 of a spring and fall season, with an interim of two mouths, in which 

 the nets are taken out, the fishing, beginning late in May, lasts until 

 the first week in September ; the fisheries having their greatest run 

 during the months iu which the least fishing is done at most points on 

 the lake. 



It will be observed that in Illinois's share of tlie lake-shore no fishing 

 is done, save with pound-nets. It is not likely that gill-net fishing- 

 would be undertaken here if i^ound-nets were prohibited, as it would 

 be too hazardous of life and property. Gill-net fishing is adapted only 

 to a coast with good boat-harbors, or at any rate favorable lees, as iu 

 high winds, driving heavy seas on the shore, there is great ditticulty in 

 landing, and often when there is not sufficient sea outside to prevent 

 taking up the nets, it is very difficult to launch a boat that would expe- 

 rience no inconvenience when once fairly out from shore ; so that nets 

 from a shore like this often remain out for days, while a few miles off 

 from a harbor the boats run out and take up every day. Frequently 

 they are caught in a gale when outside, and are obliged to run for 

 harbors twenty or thirty miles to the north or south because of the dan- 

 ger they would incur in beaching. The large number of deserted fish- 



