176 



FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES, 1908. 



products caught by means of gill nets and pound nets 

 had a value equal to 98 per cent of that of all products. 

 On the Mississippi River and its tributaries, on the 

 other hand, the catch by gill nets was small and the 

 catch by pound nets was valued at less than one- 

 fourth of the total value of products caught by pound 

 nets in the state. Lines were the only other form of 

 apparatus of capture used in the Lake Superior dis- 

 trict. Only 7 per cent of the total value of the products 

 caught by lines contributed to the catch from these 

 waters. In the interior waters of the Mississippi 

 River district, on the other hand, where only hand 

 lines and spears were allowed by law, lines formed an 

 important means of capture. Almost one-fifth of the 

 value of the fishery products of the Mississippi River 

 district represented the value of product caught by 

 hand lines. 



Principal species. — Lake herring, taken wholly in 

 Lake Superior, formed the most important fishery 

 product of the state, contributing 20 per cent of the 

 value of all fishery products. A part of the lake- 

 herring catch was sold fresh at a valuation of $21,000, 

 while the remainder, which was sold salted and smoked, 

 brought $18,000. This fish was caught entirely by 

 means of gill nets. 



The entire catches of German carp, buffalo fish, and 

 catfish were taken in the Mississippi River and its 

 tributaries. The buffalo fish and the catfish have 

 been steadily declining in numbers during the past few 

 years, and the carp has been taking a higher place in 

 this state, as in the other states along the Mississippi 

 and Missouri Rivers. No carp were caught in 1894 

 and a quantity valued at only $900 was taken in 1899, 

 while in 1908 over a million pounds, valued at $26,000, 



were reported, and carp ranked second among the 

 fishery products of the state. 



Some pike perch were caught in the tributary lakes 

 of the Mississippi River, but over nine-tenths of the 

 value reported for this fish was reported from the 

 Lake Superior waters. All of the lake trout came 

 from the Lake Superior fisheries. Sturgeon came from 

 the Mississippi River and also from the Lake of the 

 Woods and Rainy Lake, which, while included in the 

 Lake Superior system, did not come under the statute 

 prohibiting the taking of sturgeon from Lake Superior. 

 The pike and pickerel caught were secured from the 

 Lake of the Woods and Rainy Lake, and from the 

 tributaries of the Mississippi River. The whitefish 

 were caught in the Lake Superior waters only. 



The mussel-shell and pearl industry has become an 

 important branch of the Mississippi River fisheries 

 during the past few years. The industry was not 

 mentioned in the report of the Bureau of Fisheries for 

 1894, and its product amounted to only $200 in value 

 in 1899, but in 1908 products valued at $8,400 were 

 reported. The value of pearls and slugs secured inci- 

 dentally in the pursuit of the mussel-shell -industry 

 represented $3,700, or 44 per cent of the value of 

 mussel-shell products in 1908. 



The frog industry, carried on in the tributary waters 

 of the Mississippi, is also of recent development, having 

 been started about 1895. In 1899 a product of 92,000 

 pounds, valued at $9,600, was reported, and in 1908, 

 66,000 pounds, valued at $7,900. The 1908 product, 

 though somewhat smaller in quantity and value than 

 that secured in 1899, represented nearly 20 per cent of 

 the total value of the capture in the United States and 

 was surpassed only by the capture in Missouri. 



