2826 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



ting, held at the corners by anchors. The fish go along the leaders and 

 pass into the receptacle. The trap requires constant watching, or the 

 fish could go in and out. The moment a school of fish enter, the net- 

 ting at the end is raised. They pursue the same mode of emptying, 

 and turn the fish into the pocket, as with pounds. 



Q. The difference is that in the case of pound, it is not necessary that 

 boats should be employed to visit them frequently? A. In stormy 

 weather you sometimes cannot get to a pound for a week. In the case 

 of trapii they are visited three or four or half a dozen times a day. 



Q. When the boats off shore see a school of fish enter the trap, they 

 follow and take it whether large or small. [Diagram of weir exhibited.] 

 This weir consists of a small circle of brush or boards, with two wings 

 and a spring. The fish come into the weir at high tide, and as the water 

 falls they are left in a cavity inside the weir, and are taken out in dip- 

 nets. There are a dozen or twenty different forms of constructing weirs. 



Q. What is the estimated cost of a pound? A. $1,000 will pay for 

 the construction of a very good pound, including the entire equipment. 

 A pound is managed by from two to four men, while a trap requires 

 two boats and about seven men. 



Q. The trap is more expensive? A. About the same cost as the 

 pound, because, although it has no stakes, yet it requires to be of very 

 considerable size and needs anchors. I should presume that the first 

 cost of the two would not be very different. 



Q. And what is the cost of a weir ? A. It is a simple thing. The 

 cost merely represents the lumber and labor. 



Q. That is a permanent erection? A. Yes; the others are all taken 

 up; the traps are only kept down six weeks in the year; the pounds 

 are down for from two months to five, and at the end of the season they 

 use an apparatus to pull the stakes out of the water, and then pack them 

 on shore for next season. 



Q. What are the kinds of fish taken in the great lakes ? A. There is 

 a great variety of fish taken there, but the most important fish, as a 

 matter of business, are the whitefish, lake herring, lake trout, wall-eyed 

 pike, maskalouge, sturgeon, and a variety of others. The most import- 

 ant, however, are whitefish, herring, and trout. 



Q. What are the methods of taking them ? A. They are taken very 

 largely by pounds, which are constructed on a very large scale, and 

 much more elaborate and expensive than on the coast. They are taken 

 by gill nets very largely, and by seines under certain circumstances. 

 At a certain time of the ^ear, whitefish can be taken in great quantities 

 in seines, and kept in pounds until ready for market. 



Q. Are those built and constructed to a great extent along both the 

 Canadian and American shores 1 -A. I presume they are used in Canada, 

 though I cannot say. I know U.ey are on our own coasts. There is 

 quite a number of these pounds worked by Canadians on the American 

 coast. 



Q. Have- you any statistics respecting the lake fishery for the years 

 1876 and 1877 ? A. I have only partial statistic, for 1877. I published 

 the statistics in detail in my report for 1872, and I am now having 

 statistics for 1877 collected, and will have them I suppose by the end of 

 the season. 



Q. 1872 represents but faintly the present state of things. Can you 

 tell us how it was in 1872 ? A. In 1872 the American production of fish 

 in the great lakes was 32,250,000 pounds. That qtfautity of fish was 

 taken, but how much more I cannot say. Those were marketed at 

 Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, and many other stations. 



