586 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
cipally in gill nets, although small quantities are also caught in pound 
nets and with other forms of apparatus. Within the past few years 
there has been a greater demand for this species than formerly, and 
consequently a large increase in the quantity taken. The catch in 
1899 was nearly twice as large as in any previous year for which sta- 
tistics are available. It is probable that the abundance of other more 
valuable species has heretofore had a tendency to deter the fishermen 
from the capture of herring. 
The pike perches are not abundant in this lake, and the annual catch 
has never exceeded a few thousand pounds. The wall-eyed pike, which 
is the principal member of this group of fishes in Lake Superior, was 
caught chiefly in pound nets in Chippewa and Ontonagon counties, 
Michigan. A small quantity was also caught in Wisconsin, but none 
in Minnesota. 
The sturgeon has never been found in large quantities in this lake, 
and is apparently becoming less plentiful every year. The catch in 
1899 was nearly all taken in pound nets in Chippewa, Houghton, and 
Ontonagon counties, Michigan, and amounted to only 4,415 pounds, 
valued at S176. 
In the section of the St. Marys River between Sault Ste. Marie and 
Sailors Encampment, the fisheries of which are included in the present 
statistics with those of Lake Superior, a number of species are taken 
in small quantities which do not occur in the lake proper. The more 
important of these are pickerel or grass pike, yellow perch, bullheads, 
and rock bass. The apparatus in which they are caught consists of 
trap nets, gill nets, and fyke nets. During the winter the gill nets are 
fished under the ice. The catch from this part of the river is marketed 
at Sault Ste. Marie. 
Bluefin white-fish.—The bluetin white-fish (Argyrosomus nigripin- 
nis) has within recent years become important in the fisheries of Lake 
Superior. It was first noticed in Whitefish Bay in 1893, and a catch 
of 36,818 pounds, valued at $1,326, was secured. Since that time it 
has increased in abundance and has become quite generally distributed, 
but the catch is greater in the southern and western than in the north- 
ern and eastern parts of the lake. It was formerly regarded with 
little favor by the fishermen, but now that the white-fish is becoming 
scarce the bluefin is caught in larger quantities. It finds a ready 
market, and being a prolific species may in some measure compensate 
for the falling off in the catch of white-fish. 
The bluefin is said by Mr. John Hawley, of Ontonagon, to have 
made its first appearance in the western part of the lake in the spring 
of 1894. In 1897 Mr. Hawley’s catch with one steamer equipped with 
gill nets was 230,000 pounds, and in 1899 it was 200,200 pounds, while 
the quantity of white-fish taken by this steamer in the last-named year 
was only 138,900 pounds. In some parts of the lake the bluefin occurs 
only in deep water, but in others it is frequently caught in June in 
