GREAT LAKES: LAKE SUPERIOR 635 



The boats used are Mackinaws, about 32 feet in length and worth $100. A tug also is employed 

 in transporting products from the fishing grounds. Only two pounds are owned at Duluth, both 

 small and set in shoal water. They are usually established about the 10th of June. The seiners 

 fish only for a few days or weeks. 



The gill-net grounds visited by the Duluth fishermen extend along the south shore to the 

 Apostle Islands and along the north shore to Isle Royale. The former are visited in spring and 

 summer, the latter in fall. The pound-nets are set at the entrance of Superior Bay near Superior 

 City, about eight miles distant from Duluth. Seining is prosecuted in the vicinity of Fond du 

 Lac, at the head of Saint Louis Bay. 



In the pound-nets and gill-nets principally whitefish, trout, and herring are taken. The catch 

 of the two former species amounted in 1879 to about 280,000 pounds. The seine fishery yields only 

 pike, of which during the same year, about 16,000 pounds were caught. 



The shipping business was carried on by one firm until 1880, when .another made a beginning. 

 All the fish are shipped fresh, being sent as far west as Deadwood, Dak., and south to Omaha, 

 Nebr. The larger proportion, however, is sold in Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minn. 



The fisheries of this section, as a whole, are growing in importance, although the pound- 

 fishery seemed to have declined somewhat since five pound-nets were in use here a few years ago. 

 There are few historical matters of importance to be recorded. No disasters occurred for twelve 

 years prior to 1879, but in the fall of that year one fisherman was drowned. 



Superior City, the next town eastward, does not engage in the fisheries to any considerable 

 extent. 



230. THE FISHERIES OF THE SOUTHERN SHORE. 



BAYFIELD AND ASHLAND. These villages are situated east of the Apostle Islands, the 

 former at the mouth and the latter at the head of Chequamegon Bay. They are approximately 

 of equal size and importance. Both are interested in the lumber trade, and each supports a local 

 journal. Ashland is a watering place of some note. 



Bayfield surpasses Ashland in the importance of its fisheries, and indeed the people are depend- 

 ent upon them. In the former village about one hundred and thirty men were employed in the 

 fisheries in 1879, and nearly twice that number during 1880, while at the latter point only twenty- 

 five or thirty men found occupation in fishing. The fishermen are principally Canadian French 

 and half-breed Indians in about equal irarnbers. 



Gill-nets, pounds, seines, and lines are in use, but the first kind of apparatus is that most exten- 

 sively employed. About 1,680 gill-nets are owned at Bayfield, but considerably less than one- 

 fourth that number at Ashland. Their average length is about 65 fathoms. The pound fishery 

 is prosecuted with 27 nets at Bayfield and 3 or 4 more at Ashland. They are of various sizes and 

 depths, but all formed after the usual model. Seventeen or eighteen seines are employed, their 

 average length being about 60 rods. In winter hook fishing is carried on among the islands near 

 Bayfield. 



The principal boat is the famous Mackinaw, but a few clinker built boats also are in use. For 

 the pound fishery the ordinary flat-bottomed pound-boat prevails. A schooner, used in carrying 

 fishery products, is also owned at Bayfield. 



The gill-net grounds extend 90 or 100 miles eastward from the village. Pounds are set among 

 the Apostle Islands and in Chequamegon Bay. The winter hook fishery and the seine fishery are 

 both prosecuted among the islands, but much seining is done, also, in the shallow bays west of the 

 Apostle Islands 



