48 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



20. BAYFIELD, BAYFIELD COUNTY, WISCONSIN, AND THE SHORE BE- 

 TWEEN SUPERIOR AND THE APOSTLE ISLANDS. 



The main shore. — This strip of coast, about 70 miles in extent, is bold 

 and rocky, with small bays and sandy reaches scattered at intervals 

 throughout its length. It is a heavily wooded region, with no post-office- 

 settlements, and, in fact, only two places of human habitation the 

 largest of which is a few miles off the mouth of the Bois Brule River, 

 wbere an English colony has established itself to engage in agriculture. 

 At the mouth of Iron Rivera farm has been cleared, and one man divides 

 his time between agriculture and fishing. The waters abound in fish, 

 and fishermen from both Duluth and Bayfield have pounds and gill- 

 nets along the shore. Four or five crews of Duluth gill-net fishermen 

 occasionally come as far east as the Apostle Islands, but the pound-net 

 fishing from Duluth has thus far not extended beyond the mouth of 

 Iron River, while Bayfield pound-net fishermen have gone as far west 

 as Flag River, only 8 miles distant, and have nets scattered along the 

 coast from there to Bayfield. 



The islands. — The Apostle Islands are a group of twenty-three islands 

 of various sizes lying a few miles to the northeast of Bayfield. The 

 largest of these is Magdalene Island, which is about 10 or 12 miles long 

 and 2 miles wide, having about 200 inhabitants, scattered along differ- 

 ent coves, about thirty of whom engage in the fisheries from Bayfield. 

 The only village on Magdalene Island is named La Pointe. It is located 

 about 3 miles distant from Bayfield, and is one of the oldest settlements 

 about Lake Superior. For many years it was the leading trading post 

 of the region, and the headquarters of the Hudson Bay Company, who 

 purchased from the Indians salt fish and large quantities of furs. At 

 one time the town is said to have contained upwards of 1,500 inhabit- 

 ants. Within the last twenty years business interests of all kinds have 

 declined, and to-day they are represented ouly by the small operations 

 of a single trader, and the population has decreased to fifteen or twenty 

 families. 



Fish-dealers were formerly located there, buying and shipping con- 

 siderable quantities of salt fish, but no dealers had been there for some 

 years prior to 18S5 ; the entire catch going to Bayfield . The other islands 

 are practically uninhabited, though formerly several of the larger ones 

 had one or two houses ; in 1885 there were three families on Basswood 

 Island, where there is an excellent red sandstone quarry. A small 

 amount of logging is done here in winter, as well as on one or two of the 

 other islands. During the summer months a majority of the islands are 

 visited by fishermen from Bayfield, Duluth, and Ashland, for engaging 

 in the pound and gill-net fisheries. They build rude shanties to live in 

 during the fishing season, but all take their departure before winter sets 

 in, and leave their places deserted. The waters in the vicinity are at 

 present more extensively fished than those of any other portion of Lake 



