of bottom), the upper being floated with cedar blocks or with corks. Each net. 
is some 300 or 400 feet long, 44—54 feet deep, and of 4} to 43 inch mesh for White- 
fish, and sometimes an inch more for Lake Trout. Ten to twenty or more such 
nets arranged in a row form a “gang,” and four gangs constitute an outfit for 
four men, two gangs being in the water at one time, and one of these hauled 
daily. 
Certain objections are urged against the use of gill-nets; the catch is often 
so large as to be unmanageable, and is therefore wasteful, the fish spoil in a few 
hours, especially if there is much current, and decomposition sets in with great 
rapidity after death, so that when the nets are hauled many of the fish are not 
in proper condition for the market, requiring to be punctured and salted before 
they can be sold. ‘This is especially the case in summer, mnore particularly so if 
the lifting of the nets has been delayed a day or so by bad weather. In such a 
case the fish are all decayed, and too often the net is stripped on the spot, and the 
decayed fish thrown out to the great injury of the fishing grounds. Again, gill- 
nets may drift in stormy weather, and be thrown with their contents on some 
reef, perhaps to the destruction of some good spawning ground. The gill-net 
fishermen using a comparatively small number of nets to a gang, “a light rig,” 
employ Mackinaw boats, which, unlike the pound-boats, are sharp-sterned to 
prevent shipping water aft when running with the sea. Larger boats are neces- 
sary with “ heavy rigs.” 
Of other varieties of nets, the Trammel net, Dip-net and Beam-trawl may 
be mentioned. The first is a 3-ply net-work of varied mesh, generally set 
across the current of a stream during the run of suckers or for catching inshore 
fish. ‘The Dip-net varies in size, and may be used for catching bait or for empty- 
ing the cribs of pounds. The Beam-trawl, so extensively used in British sea- 
fishing, cannot be employed successfully except on a smooth sandy bottom, and 
is therefore unavailable in the lakes. 
In addition to net-fishing reference may be made incidentally to two other 
methods :—set-line fishing on a commercial scale, and fishing through the ice. The 
former is practiced in Lake Michigan successfully for Trout, several gangs of 200 
to 500 hooks, strung six feet apart on a line, buoyed by cedar floats, being set in 
25 to 50 fathoms water, the hooks being baited with herring attached in as natural 
an attitude as possible. The “trawl” lines are visited every two or three days, 
and have in some places proved so successful as to have displaced gill-nets. 
Ice-fishing may be effected either by seines or by spearing or by bait-fishing, 
but hardly attains to sufficient commercial importance to require further notice 
here. 
