FISHERIES OF THE GREAT LAKES IN* 1885. 43 



population had increased to 13,000 in L8S3, and in 1885 numbered about 

 18,000, and the greatest activity was everywhere manifest. Four or five 

 railroads communicate with the interior, and this port seems destined 

 to command the water shipments from a large portion of the Northwest. 

 There are already eight or ten grain elevators, and work has also been 

 commenced on a series of docks, which will give abundant wharf room 

 for a large fleet of vessels. The harbor is large and well protected. 

 There are extensive saw-mills, and quite a trade in supplying merchan- 

 dise to the smaller inland settlements has already sprung up. 



History of fishing interests. — The fisheries have developed in an equal 

 ratio with the other industries. Comparatively few years ago they were 

 carried on only by a few boats that fished with great irregularity, the 

 fishermen disposing of a portion of their catch in the village and shipping 

 the remainder to St. Paul and Minneapolis. The business was at this 

 time retarded by the smallness of the demand, and, as no regular trade 

 had developed, the fishermen could not carry on the work with any 

 steadiness. In the spring of 1880 the entire trade was controlled by 

 one firm, who had for two years prior to this time been running a small 

 steamer, the Fred and Will, along the shores for a number of miles to 

 purchase the fish from the fishermen who camp there during the fishing 

 season. About that time another firm began handling fish, and in 1884 

 a third party, owning a small fishing steamer, shipped his own catch 

 in additions limited quantities of fresh fish which he bought directly 

 from the pound- net and gill-net fishermen. 



Present condition of the fisheries. — During the season of 1885 the trade 

 in both fresh and salt fish was controlled by two firms, Cooley, La Vaque 

 & Co., and the Duluth Fish Company, each having one steamer, which 

 they sent to all fishing camps along both the south and north shores of 

 the lake, from the Apostle Islands to Isle Royale, and to one or two little 

 Canadian harbors, a distance of two hundred miles from Duluth. There 

 were during the year mentioned about forty crews, of two or three men 

 each, fishing with gill-nets for whitefish and trout; and three steamers, 

 with five men each, engaged in the same fishery. There were in addition 

 14 pound-nets owned by Duluth fishermen, and six more by those from 

 Superior, fished along the south shore. A large part of the catch is 

 sold fresh, but when there is a surplus, or when for any reason the 

 collecting steamers do not arrive, the fish are salted and sold in that con- 

 dition. In 1885 the catch by Duluth fishermen and by the seines and 

 pound nets at Superior amounted to 2,058,000 pounds, valued at $75,680. 

 Of this amount 400,000 pounds of whitefish, 500,000 pounds of trout, 

 270,000 pounds of siscowet, 10,000 pounds of sturgeon, 25,000 pounds 

 of herring, and 110,000 pounds of pike, were sold fresh, and 1,500 half- 

 barrels of whitefish, an equal quantity of siscowet, 4,000 half-barrels of 

 trout, 100 half-barrels of herriug,andl30 half- barrels of pike were salted. 



Fishermen. — The fishermen are mostly natives of Norway, with a few 

 French Canadians and Americans, and two or three Germans. About 



