16 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



and run near the shore at difierent poiuts, while tlte iiiajority of locali- 

 ties may be entirely destitute of fish. 



14. — WHEN THE DECREASE BEGAN. 



The oldest fishermen I have met claim from twenty-five to twenty-eight 

 years' fishing in the lake. They assert the fish to luue been abundant^ 

 running in near shore, and that hauls of large quantities Avere made with 

 the seine. 



The custom in many places was to employ the Indians to watch the 

 shore for a near run of fish, and Avhen discovered draw the seine around 

 tlieni. Immense quantities were taken in this way. 



There are no recorded statistics that show a reliable calculation of 

 dates, but the testimony of fishermen, dependent on their recollection of 

 their purchases of nets and changes in their modes of fishing, places the 

 beginning of a marked decrease within about ten years. 



15. — THE AMOUNT OF DECREASE. 



The amount of decrease, in the absence of statistics of capture, cannot 

 be decided very definitely. The records of shipments from Two Eivers, 

 on a previous page, show a decrease of fifty per cent, in four years. 



The reduction in the number of boats at different localities, perhaps 

 indicates to some extent the amount of decrease in the fish. 



In 1858 there are said to have been thirty-three gill-net boats, fishing 

 from Milwaukee, Wis. In 1871 there were but fourteen. 



Between Kenosha, AVis., and Chicago, 111., the pound-nets have 

 diminished from thirty-six in 18G9, to twenty-seven in 1871. 



At Wiiite-Fish Bay, Door County, Wisconsin, formerly an extensive 

 fishing-ground, there are now but three pound-nets. 



A profitable fishery at Xorth Bay is now entirely abandoned. The 

 pound-net fishermen at Two Elvers complained of the scarcity of 

 white-fish, and one asserted that a law prohibiting i)Ound-net fishing 

 would not be a very serious loss, in consideration of the i)oor success 

 they had had for a few years. Compare this condition of things with 

 the record of 18G1, in the report of Hon. Theodore Wendell to the 

 Michigan legislature, in which, from four pounds, 2,800 half- barrels of 

 fish were taken in White-Fish Bay, Wis., and with a few more nets a 

 firm of fishermen. Sage »& Douglas, took 4,000 half-barrels in the same 

 region. The pound-net men generally acknowledge the decrease of the 

 fish in their own localities, and attribute it to various causes. 



At Ausable. Mich., on Lake Huron, there are said to have been forty 

 two boats in 1805; while at i^resent there are but six. 



The estimate of decrease, within safe calculations, is all of fifty per 

 cent., w'hich, in a period of ten or twelve years, is sufiiclently large to 

 be alarming. 



16. — THE CAUSE OF THE DECREASE. 



If the take of fish, by nets of all kinds, is greater than tlte natural 



