THE GERMAN CARP IN THE UNITED STATES. 611 
is carried on to some extent throughout the entire year, and some per- 
sons devote their whole time to it, the bulk of the fishing, in the Lake 
Erie region, comes in spring and summer, when the number of men 
engaged is greatly augmented. Many of these persons are profes- 
sional fishermen who at other seasons are engaged in catching other 
kinds of fish; but many also are ‘farmers, usually living in the vicinity 
of the fishing grounds, who supplement the income of their farms in 
this way. For this reason it is very difficult to estimate the number 
of men engaged in carp fishing, either for a part or for the whole of 
their time. 
By far the greater number of carp marketed are taken in seines, 
and the methods differ only in details from those employed in seining 
generally. For this reason I shall give but a short description of the 
methods employed, and shall confine my remarks to the fisheries along 
Lake Erie and the adjacent waters. Apparently about the same 
methods are employed by the Illinois fishermen. (See illustrations in 
Illinois fish commissioner’s report, 1900-1902.) 
Some of the fishermen, especially those who fish along the shores of 
Lake Erie, make their headquarters in the cities where the wholesale 
houses are situated, making trips of two or three days, or even a week 
or more duration along the shores, and running back when they have 
a load of fish. These trips are made usually in open, flat-bottomed 
boats, of the style known on the lakes as ‘‘seine boats” and ‘* pound 
boats.” They are rigged as single or double *‘ cats,” but with the sail 
extending beyond the gaff to form a sort of permanent topsail. 
Others, and especially the farmers who fish for only a portion of the 
year, usually have a permanent camp established near some of the 
marshes. The fish when caught at these places are transferred at once 
to live-cars if to be kept but a short time, or to artificial ponds if 
they are to be kept longer, and are later sent to the wholesale houses 
either in wagons or by boat. 
SEINING. 
The seines used in this fishing are commonly 40 to 50 rods in length, 
about 18 feet deep in the middle and 10 feet deep at the ends. The 
middle portion or bag is generally about 5 rods long and has a 3-inch 
mesh, while the wings havea4-inch mesh. Longer seines—to a length 
of 80 rods—are sometimes used, but are usually found to be too 
inconvenient. The cork-line is well supplied with floats to keep it up, 
but there are usually no weights on the lead-line. The lead-line is 
made shorter than the cork-line, however, so that it hauls somewhat 
ahead of the latter and hugs the bottom. The seine boats commonly 
used are open, flat-bottomed, centerboard boats about 20 to 30 feet 
long, square at the stern, and fitted with a single mast (fig. 3, pl. m). 
The seine is loaded into the stern of the boat in such a way that it can 
be paid off easily, and is taken to a ground where the fishermen have 
