34 FISH—-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 
crease has been at all alarming. Ashland Bay (Chequamegan 
Bay) seems to have suffered the most, it is thought, because 
pound nets have been set there the longest. When a certain 
locality begins to show signs of giving out, a new one is found, 
and a rest of a few years is said in some cases to have restored 
the depleted waters. The present year (1880) the fishing is said 
to be better than ever before. But it must be remembered that 
the facilities for capture are better, the men more experienced, 
and the grounds better known. There is also more twine in 
use than ever before.” 
August 30th, 1880, Messrs. W. W. Paddock & Co., of Ashland, 
Wis., who own over 1,200 gill nets, twenty-three pound nets, 
and seven seines, wrote: ‘‘ There seems to be only one-third of 
the whitefish caught near Ashland that there formerly was.”’ 
Of the fisheries of Lake Superior from Keewenaw Point to 
Huron Bay, where the catch in 1879 was 8,ooo barrels, mostly 
whitefish and trout, Mr. Kumlein writes: ‘‘ Whitefisn are said 
to have decreased considerably in fifteen years, especially in 
Keewenaw Bay.” 
Mr. Kumlein, writing from Marquette, of the fisheries extend- 
ing thirty miles east and west of that place, says: “ Fifteen to 
twenty years ago the fishing was done almost. entirely with 
hooks for trout, and only with gill nets for whitefish. Pounds 
were not used till 1869. There is supposed to .hawe %been a 
radual decrease, especially among the whitefish and trout. 
his is stoutly denied by some, who say the fish have merely 
moved on to grounds inaccessible to the fishermen, or not yet 
discovered by them.”’ 
Mr. Kumlein says of White Fish Point: “ This fishery was 
purchased in 1870 by Jones & Trevalle, of Buffalo, N. Y., who 
employ a steam tug, two Mackinaw boats, two pound nets, two 
seines, and thirty-six box gill nets. Of late the fishing has not 
been so profitable as it was five or six years ago. In 1879 there 
were but three hundred and fifty half barrels salted, while in 
r874 there were 2,300. They take only whitefish and trout. In 
the last three years the catch has been too poor to pay ex- 
penses.” | 
West Coast of Lake Michigan.—Mr. Kirtland, of Jacksonport, 
