18 KEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



The staudard of inspection, of the best inspectors, which is also ap- 

 proved b^Muost of the dealers, though not establishing the grade by 

 weight, virtually makes the minimum weight of a IS^o. 1 white-fish about 

 one and one-quarter i^ounds ; a Xo. 2 fish, about three-quarters of a pound ; 

 and the weight of a ]S'o. 3 fish, from three-quarters of a pound to less; 

 this is after the head and entrails are removed. 



On counting pound-net fish, as they were repacked by dealers, fish- 

 ermen's uninspected packages, one hundred pounds, were found to con- 

 tain from one hundred to one hundred and eighty fishes; in the latter 

 case the fishes averaging less than iiine ounces. Numbers of small 

 fishes, weighing from five to six ounces, are found in the pound-net 

 packages. 



Certain localities, as the north shore of the lake, have a large type of 

 fish; but of pound-net white-fish, taken in a season, throughout this lake 

 the average would not be above the No. 2 grade in weight. 



An advantage the pound-net has over the gill-net, or seine, in w^arm 

 weather, is, that in a large catch of fish it is possible to take out just 

 such a quantity at a time as can be handled, leaving the rest alive, 

 and fresh until it is convenient to return for them. 



In the gill-nets the lift must all be brought ashore at once, and what can 

 be dressed and packed in a few hours are used, while the remainder 

 ^poil and have to be throw^n away. 



Pound-net fish are generally superior to gill-net fish to ship fresh, 

 because they are always fresh when put in the ice-boxes, while those 

 from the gill-nets may have been dead twenty-four hours or more. 



(10 b.) The gill-nets. — The white fish taken in the gill-nets, in Lake 

 Michigan, will average much higher than No. 2 fisli. From reference 

 to the books of dealers in Chicago, and an extended observation of the 

 gill-net fishing, it is evident that the entire catch of the lake would not 

 give as low an average weight as one and one-quarter jjounds. The in- 

 spection of fishermen's shipments of gill-net fish seldom affords as low a 

 proportion of No. 1 fish as one-half. 



The reasons for the larger size of the gill-net fish are in the facts re. 

 ferred to on another page, in reference to the habit of the Immature 

 white-fish to remain near the shore, the least depth employed for the 

 gill-nets, being twelve or fifteen fathoms, entirely outside of the range 

 of the smaller white-fish. 



The gill-nets destroy a great many fish in time of storms, when the 

 fishermen are not able to visit the nets for days at a time, two or three 

 days being sufficient during the summer months for the fish to die and 

 become tainted, when they are thrown overboard to rot on the fishing 

 grounds, making it offensive to the white-fish and driving them away. 



The gill-nets, when they are lost, destroy fish by entangling them un- 

 til the floats become water-logged and sink. They have been grappled 

 up, two years afterwards, while searching for nets recentlj^ lost, full of 

 decayed fish. This is <piite an extensive agency of destruction, as ;i 



