616 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 
The laws governing the taking of carp in Lake St. Clair are quoted 
to show what can be done in cases of this kind to allow of the utiliza- 
tion of the carp, to decrease their numbers, if that seems necessary, 
and still to afford protection to the native fish, especially the game fish, 
such as the black bass. 
OTHER METHODS OF CAPTURE. 
The number of carp taken by other means is insignificant as com- 
pared with that taken by seining—in fact, it is seldom that any other 
kind of net is set exclusively for carp. Small numbers are taken more 
or less regularly in the pound nets set in Lake Erie for saugers and 
pickerel (wali-eyed pike) and for white-fish, as well as in the traps 
and fyke nets set in the bays and rivers for other species of fish. A 
few carp—mostly small ones—are obtained in the gill nets set for 
white-fish about the Bass Islands in the fall. Occasionally when a 
number of carp have entered some place where a net can be set across 
their only way of escape, or where they can be driven into it, a gill 
net is used. Thus if carp are frightened out of the rushes where they 
are feeding they will usually make directly for deeper water. If a gill 
net is set so as to intercept them many will rush into it and become 
entangled; but they are such vigorous fish that unless the net is an 
exceptionally strong one they are apt simply to tear it to pieces. I 
believe trammel nets have been tried in the same way, but not with 
enough success to warrant their general use. 
PACKING AND SHIPMENT. 
The method of transportation of the fish to the fish houses has 
already been mentioned (p. 611). The fishermen may dispose of them 
immediately after they are caught, or they may keep them for a time 
pending a rise in the market price. In the latter case the carp are 
retained in pens or ponds as will be described later. The fish are 
received at the wholesale houses often in a living condition, although 
they may have come a distance of several miles packed a foot or two 
deep in a wagon or boat. They are transferred from the boats to 
boxes by means of short-handled dip nets, the iron frames of which 
are usually straight on the side opposite the handle, a construction 
which facilitates using them to take fish from the bottom of a boat. 
The boxes are now slid inside the fish house and placed on the scales 
where the fish are ‘‘ weighed in,” and are then dumped out in a pile on 
the floor. Usually no record is made of the number of fish, but all 
measurements are by weight. As soon as possible the fish are packed 
into plain lumber shipping boxes of uniform size and especially made 
for this purpose. A box is placed on the scales and chopped ice is 
shoveled in until it tips a certain weight; a 150-pound weight is then 
added, and carp are shoveled in until it is balanced. For handling the 
