74 Fish, Fishing and Fisheries of Pennsylvania. 



not now nearly as numerous. The herring' are also not nearly as plen- 

 teous as formerly, althoug-h they are caught in large quantities still. 



It used to be the occupation during the winter months of many per- 

 sons to fish for them through the ice and as many as five to eight hun- 

 dred persons have been seen fishing for them through the ice in the 

 bay, and in the lake near the piers. The catch in the nets during the 

 summer is large. They are taken from the fish boats, put into pans and 

 into large refrigerators and frozen. The amount of salt used is three 

 barrels to two tons of fish. In freezing this amount of fish about 2,500 

 pounds of ice is used. In shipping them they are put in boxes made 

 for the purpose, holding about 250 pounds, and when taken from the 

 refrigerator come out in slabs, of about thirty fish weighing about 

 twenty-five pounds each slab, just as they are taken from the pans when 

 frozen. There is also a large amount of them put up and salted in half 

 barrels, kitts and pails for shipment and sale in the home market. 

 The amount of white fish put up in this way is comparatively small. 



Within the last few years there have been put into the lake different 

 species of the carp, which probably have propagated and increased for 

 several French and German carp have been caught in pound nets in this 

 vicinity. Mr. Charles Lamb says that the average catch of white fish 

 in 1888 was about 5,000 poimds per tug. In 1890 one catch was 7,900 

 pounds. In 1892 the average catch was 3.000 pounds. All of this was 

 with one gang of nets. The pound nets often caught double this 

 amount with fifteen or twenty nets in a string. 



The white fishing grounds are about eighteen or twenty miles east or 

 west of the harbor and about twelve or fifteen miles in the lake. Nets 

 are set due north and south, and on the bottom, in twenty-five or thirty 

 fathoms of water. Oftentimes good catches of white fish are made in 

 pound nets near the shore. 



The largest white fish ever taken at Erie, as far as known, was 

 twenty-one and one-haH pounds, and was taken by H. M. Parker, ac- 

 cording to the Hon. Louis Strueber, one of the Fish Commissioners of 

 Pennsylvania. 



The muscalonge used to be quite plentiful in this vicinity, and is 

 known as a game fish, affording the sportsman plenty of active exercise 

 in taking them. The largest one taken at this point was sixty-two 

 pounds; the next largest forty -four pounds. The average weight of 

 them would be from twenty-five to thirty pounds. 



E. D. Carter embarked in the business of fishing and shipping fish 

 in 1874, and to him is given the credit of opening up a permanent 

 market abroad. It is true, there were shipments of fish previous to this, 

 as has been already shown, but it was only at times when there was an 

 overplus on the market, and it might, therefore, be termed spasmodic. 

 Hon. Louis Strueber went into the business in 1877, and the two were 

 for years the only shippers from Erie, and they have always done a 



