686 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 
and occasionally Menominee white-fish. The sizes of mesh used in gill 
nets varies from 3 to 4% inches, the former size being used mostly for 
perch. Gill nets are set in varying depths of water up to 100 fathoms, 
the latter being found off Thunder Bay light, near Alpena, where some 
of the deepest water in the lake occurs. The same method of pre- 
serving gill nets is followed as on some of the other Great Lakes, that 
of allowing them to remain from fifteen to twenty-five minutes in boil- 
ing water in which hemlock bark has been placed. At Alpena it is 
customary for the fishermen to buy hemlock sirup from the tanneries 
located there. This costs 75 cents a gallon, and is about as thick as 
molasses, 1 quart being used to 40 gallons of water. 
The catch by fyke nets ranks next in quantity to that of gill nets, 
though of far less value. The most of thes ts are used in Saginaw 
Liver. 
Trap nets are used in various localities from Detour to Harbor Beach, 
but very seldom below the latter town. These nets are set in from 4 
to 15 feet of water and catch principally suckers, except in a few 
localities where yellow perch and wall-eyed pike predominate. They 
are often set in January and allowed to remain until the following fall, 
being removed from the water while the ice is breaking up in the 
spring and making in the fall, to prevent injury to them. These nets 
are yery convenient to move from one ground to another, as, instead of 
stakes, anchors weighing from 5 to 385 pounds each are used to hold 
them in position. Two sizes of anchors are commonly used for each 
net, the larger ones for the ‘‘outhauls,” or back of the net, to hold 
the pot in position, and the smaller ones for the heart. Trap nets are 
sometimes entirely submerged, while in very shallow water a portion 
of the net extends above the surface. When submerged the nets are 
located by buoys, except when the owner does not desire their location 
known, in which case he has a system of his own for marking them. 
The legislature of Michigan, in 1904, passed an act prohibiting the 
use of trap nets in Lake Fincen after January 1, 1905. 
Seines are used at very few localities along the lake, the most 
important seine fishery being located at Pine River, Arenac County. 
The principal species taken were wall-eyed pike and suckers. At 
Cheboygan the catch was confined exclusively to white-fish, while at 
Ausable and Oscoda both suckers and white-fish were taken. 
An important fishery with spears is conducted during the winter in 
Saginaw Bay near the mouth of the Saginaw River, from the Ist of 
January until the latter part of March, the length of the season vary- 
ing according to the severity of the winter. Four hundred shanties 
may sometimes be seen on the ice at one time during the height of the 
season. There is usually one man toa shanty, which is from 4 to 5 
feet square and is heated by a small stove, the entire outfit costing 
about $15. The spears have a handle from 8 to 10 feet long, to which 
