MILNER FISHERIES OF THE GREAT LAKES. 73 



arranged buildings for their purpose. A good substantial dock adjoins 

 the buildings. They have interests in other profitable investments at 

 Sandusky, and are generally well to do. The sturgeon has been the main 

 part of their business, though they have smoked other fish for the mar- 

 ket, principally the lake-herring. Out of a shameful waste of a large 

 supply of food they have established a large and profitable industry. 



The details of their success are reported because in the other parts of 

 the lakes, excepting the vicinity of large cities, where they are gener- 

 ally marketable, the sturgeon are destroyed in the most wanton and 

 useless manner, and there is the opportunity in Green Bay, Wis., for 

 some one with skill and enterprise to succeed to an equal extent, and 

 to utilize thousands of pounds of food that are wasted every year. 



Visiting a firm in Chicago, who handled smoked sturgeon, I learned 

 that their books contained orders for much more than they could supply, 

 and they were willing to pay a round price for the article. The fisher- 

 men would, of course, be willing to sell the fresh sturgeon as they are 

 taken out of the net, but think they cannot afford the trouble of smok- 

 ing the quantity they capture in their own nets. The Sandusky firm are 

 not net-owners, but purchase all their fish, and the same arrangement is 

 necessary in this locality. Some of the Lake Michigan fishermen own- 

 ing a small steam fishing-boat would be the best prepared for this work 

 as they could gather up the catch of each day from a large number of nets 

 and carry it to the curing-establishment. The sturgeon could be obtained 

 for a mere nominal price, as the only care among the fishermen of the 

 locality, during my visit in 1871, was to get rid of them to the best ad- 

 vantage. [This enterprise has been lately begun by a man well quali- 

 fied to succeed.] 



(24 /.) Range of Sturgeon. — The chosen range of the sturgeon is the 

 shoaler waters of the lakes and their bays. They are very abundant 

 among the islands at the western end of Lake Erie, in Green Bay of 

 Lake Michigan, and at the southern end of this lake. Chaquamegon Bay 

 of Lake Superior, near the Apostle Islands, has them in numbers. They 

 are found in all localities in more or less abundance. 



(24 ;.) Food. — Their food consists almost entirely of the shell-fish of 

 the lakes, principally Gasteropods — the thinner-shelled kinds of the 

 genera Physa, Planorbis, and Valvata, being found broken in the stom- 

 achs, while Limncea and ^lelantlio remain whole. A few eggs of fishes 

 have been found at different times, but examination of stoniachs during 

 the spawning-season of some of the most numerous fishes did not prove 

 them to be very extensive spawn-eaters. 



(24 A'.) Habits in the spawning-season. — The spawning-season of the 

 sturgeon in the more southern lakes occurs in the mouth of June; in 

 Lake Superior it is a little later. Early in June, in the southern end of 

 Lake Michigan, they begin to congregate near the shores and at the 

 mouths of the rivers, the Kalamazoo Eiver, emptying at Saugatuck, 

 Mich., being a favorite spawning-ground. They may be seen in the 



