MILNER FISHERIES OF THE GREAT LAKES. 15 



lias been opened, a large amount of fish has been shipped to the C'hicago 

 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 ha^e l)een 

 preserved they show an evident dinunution. 



The sunmiing up of shipments from the pier at Two Kivers, Wis,, affords 



the ft)llowing: 



1S67. 



Pounds. 



Fresh fish 832,000 



Salt fish, 6,3.51 packa^ies • 635,100 



ls6s. 



Fresh fish 153,950 



Salt fish, 4,679 packages 467,900 



1869. 



Fresh fish . . . . , 185,3.'j0 



Salt fish, 3,661 packages 366,100 



1870. 



Fresh fish 203,100 



Salt fish, 2,811 packages 2-1,100 



At this port the decrease has l)een fifty per cent, in four years. 



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

 to their books gave the following figm-es, as totals of shipment: In 1860, 

 17,000 j)ackages, of one hundred pounds each; in 1870, 1.3,000 packages; 

 and though tiiey had not carried out theh- records for 1871. said they 

 would fall very much short of the figures for 1870. 



The best evidence of decrea^ 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 tlie 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 eighty or ninety. 



Of the staple fishes taken in the lakes — white-fish, Coregonus alb us ; 

 trout, iSalmo namaycush ; herring, Coregonus clupeiformis — there has 

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



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

 eries, at some iioint 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 



