568 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [lo| 
Eggs on hand, except those at Kelley’s Island, brought on to North. 
ville by Bower via Sandusky November 25. Eggs at Kelley’s Island, 
taken by Carpenter, brought to Northville November 27, by F. L. Don- 
nelly. Hight inthes of ice in Sandusky Bay on November 24, and 
navigation suspended except with the Eagle, a boat designed especially 
for breaking ice, and which was making daily trips to the islands. It 
may be stated in this connection that fishing at the islands is confined 
almost entirely to pound nets, set within a mile of shore. 
AT ALPENA. 
No record of the spawn-gathering work at this place having been kept 
by Mr. Root, it is, of course, impossible to furnish a table or daily record 
of observations and operations. Suffice it to say, however, that Mr. 
Root, with but little assistance, obtained five million and sixty thousand 
eggs, a much greater number in proportion to the days of actual work 
than was secured at the islands of Lake Erie, a result due partly to the 
greater numbers of whitefish caught at Alpena, and partly to the eggs 
being taken mostly from gill-net fishing, by which method the fish are 
taken into the boat one at a time, thus affording the operator an oppor- 
tunity to examine each fish as fast as taken from the net, a privilege 
necessarily inadmissible with the pound-net, where the fish are cornered 
and scooped in as rapidly as possible. However, although in the pound- 
boat many desirable fish may be lost sight of or covered up with the 
hundreds of smaller fish caught in a pound-net, and thereby escape ex- 
amination, yet on the whole the pound-net is the best field for opera- 
tions, as the fish are always alive, fresh, and uninjured, and conse- 
quently their eggs will invariably turn out better than those from gill- 
nets, in which the fish are found exhausted, frequently injured, and 
sometimes dead—all caused by their violent struggles to free themselves 
from the mesh of the net—and which is also a fruitful source of spent 
fish, the efforts causing many of the females to emit their eggs. But 
on the other hand, again, a greater number of eggs can usually be secured 
daily from gill-nets than from pound-nets; that is, when the former are 
set in gangs of two to five miles—many extend this length at Alpena—as 
it gives the operator from six to twelve consecutive hours’ labor, whereas 
the pound-net is generally lifted in less than an hour, and one boat rarely 
visits more than four or five pounds daily. 
CONCLUDING REMARKS IN CONNECTION WITH THE SPAWN-TAKING 
OPERATIONS. 
The fishing industry of Alpena, a rapidly growing city now having a 
population of seven thousand, is a very important one, second only to 
its lumbering interests. The bulk of the catch is secured by gill-nets, 
many gangs of which are set on the reefs from five to thirty miles out; 
a number of pound-nets, however, are located inshore and off the adja- 
cent islands. 
