172 
with such an implement, the fish must have been exceed- 
ingly plentiful in this lake. Facts at hand would seem 
to indicate that Lake Erie was in these early days boun- 
tifully stocked with fish, and although it has been fished 
constantly for a very long period, it still yields immense 
quantities of valuable commercial fish. 
Blois, speaking of the condition of the fisheries as early 
as 1835, in his ‘“‘Gazeteer of Michigan,” says: “Their 
quantities are surprising, and apparently so inexhaustible 
as to warrant the belief that were a population of millions 
to inhabit the lake shores they would furnish ample sup- 
plies of this article of food without any sensible diminu- 
tion.” 
Looking at the matter from that period of time the 
writer was unquestionably warranted in his assumption. 
But Blois could not have apprehended at that time that 
the census of 1890 would show that in the six States sur- 
rounding the Great Lakes there was a population con- 
stituting more than one-sixth of the entire population of 
the country. Neither could he anticipate that the meth- ° 
ods of preserving fish would, within thirty years from 
the date of this writing, make it not only possible but 
profitable for fishermen to follow their calling almost 
continuously during the entire year. 
Michigan statistics show that in 1830 the quantity of 
fish marketed in the State amounted to 8,ooo barrels 
valued at $40,000. 
In 1836 the whole number of barrels taken amounted 
to 11,400. 
In 1837, to 13,500 barrels of the value of $125,800. 
Of this quantity one-fourth was consumed in the State 
and the rest was shipped to Ohiv, New York and Penn- 
sylvania. | 
It will be observed that the reports of the catch and 
value of the commercial fish upon the Great Lakes 
are somewhat meagre and desultory. The report of 
the Detroit Board of Trade for 1857 shows that there 
