SEINE FISHERY OF GREAT LAKES. 765 



nets the shanty is drawn over a hole and the fish removed from the nets on either side. Two men 

 can manage about thirty nets. Similar methods are employed at the Saginaw Bay fisheries in 

 Lake Huron, which are, perhaps, the most extensive winter gill-net fisheries on the lakes. 



While the water is cold fish are removed from the nets about once in three days, but in 

 wanner weather, wheu there is danger of their spoiling, they are removed every other day , or even 

 daily. Fish caught in gill-nets do not ordinarily bring as high a price as those which are takeu 

 in pounds, for the reason that the former, if allowed to remain in the gill-nets for any considerable 

 length of time, die, and are liable to decay, while the latter are sure to reach market in better con- 

 dition, 



4. PREPARATION OF THE FISH. 



There are no peculiarities in the methods of preparing gill-net fish for market. A large propor- 

 tion, however, are sold fresh, because in the more important gill-net fisheries, especially those car- 

 ried on in the vicinity of, or in close communication with, the markets, only large fish are taken, 

 which are too valuable to salt. Schooners are employed to a considerable extent by dealers to 

 cruise among the Beaver Islands and along isolated portions of the shore to collect the products 

 of the fisheries. 



5. FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS. 



In Section IV, devoted to fishermen, we have already alluded to the arrangements which 

 hitherto existed extensively everywhere on the lakes, but which brought disaster to so many fish- 

 ermen. It was usual for dealers to advance full outfits, including provisions, to the fishermen, and 

 to look for pay in the fish which were to be caught. Although this system proved fairly successful 

 in years of abundance offish, it proved utterly ruinous to both fishermen and outfitters in years of 

 scarcity. It found its most complete development in Green Bay, where the financial condition be- 

 came at length critical. In 1876 one dealer alone at Green Bay supplied the fishermen, many of 

 whom came from a longdistance, with provisions to the amount of $25,000, the greater part of which 

 amount remains still unpaid. At present, however, only a few reliable and well-known men are 

 allowed credit, and others are obliged to pay at once for the nets and other necessaries which they 

 receive. 



In the large fisheries, in which steam-tugs are employed, the capitalists keep the apparatus 

 under their own control and hire a sufficient number of fishermen to carry on the industry. 



3. THE SEINE FISHERY; MINOR FISHERIES. 



1. THE METHODS AND EXTENT OF THE SEINE FISHERY. 



The seine fishery of the Great Lakes has probably altered more iu its general character than 

 any other branch prosecuted. In the early days, when the fisheries were carried on in this region to 

 but a limited extent, seine fishing was of the highest importance, but with the introduction of 

 gill-nets and pounds, which enabled the fishermen to take much larger quantities offish than it 

 was possible to do by meaus of seines, the latter gradually disappeared ; in fact, in a number of 

 localities the seines were cut to pieces and used iu the manufacture of pound-nets. At the present 

 time the principal seine fishery of the lakes is that carried oil iu the Detroit River, This is very 



