52 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



with stoves, and they move them from hole to hole on the ice, thus pro- 

 tecting themselves from the winter's cold. Others have horses and 

 sleighs for visiting their nets, driving to and from the fishing-grounds, 

 while others still are obliged to go afoot and work without shelter, 

 and, of course, can fish only during moderate weather. Some years, 

 from twenty to twenty-five crews are engaged in net-fishing through 

 the ice, but the fishermen are not disposed to do much at this season, 

 unless necessity compels, and during the winter of 1884-5 only about 

 ten crews were thus employed, and some of these fished only for a short 

 time. 



Pound-net fishery . — Tbe first pound located at Bayfield was Set by Mr. 

 Boutin, who came herefrom Ashland in the spring of 1871. The in- 

 dustry was not important until about 1880. Several new nets were 

 purchased in that year, and in 18S3 the number had reached twenty- 

 five or thirty, exclusive of those owned by Ashfield fishermen. In 1884 

 not less than eighty new ones were employed, and the following sea- 

 son ten or twelve more were added. They are set in water varying 

 from 12 to 60 feet in depth, the deepest ones in 1885 being only about 

 40 feet; but one of the dealers intended making and setting a 75-foot 

 net that fall. The nets are of the ordinary pattern, with forty to eighty 

 rod leaders of 6 inch mesh, a heart of 5-inch mesh, and usually a 28-foot 

 pot of 3-inch mesh. They are provided with tunnels 10 feet square at 

 the mouth, 16 feet long, and having an inner opening of 2 by 6 feet. 

 The nets are usually set between the 15th of May and the 1st of June. 

 Some of the men fish gill-nets before the season opens, and a few con- 

 tinue to fish them in connection with the pounds. Most of the fishing 

 is over by the first of August, and half of the nets are taken out. The 

 remainder are fished until the last of September, when the fishermen 

 fit out for the gill-net fishery. Of late there has been a tendency to pro- 

 long the pound-net season, and on September 5, 1885, fully half of the 

 nets were still in the water. In 1884, for the first time, a pound-net was 

 fished in winter, and, though not successful, there was a growing in- 

 clination to set pound-nets during the spawning season of the white- 

 fish. It seems probable that within a comparatively short time a ma- 

 jority of the nets will be fished in fall and early winter, as well as 

 at other seasons. The nets are usually {mrchased from the dealers, 

 some of the fishermen paying cash, but a greater number getting them 

 on credit and paying for them in fish. A few, however, are owned by 

 dealers and other capitalists. These are fished on shares, the net tak- 

 ing from two-fifths to one-half of the catch. Three fishermen usually 

 constitute a crew, fishing from two to five nets, and where more are 

 worked additional men are required. They set their nets about the 

 islands and in the sandy reaches and bays along the main shore, build- 

 ing shanties near by where they camp during the season, and are visited 

 regularly by the collecting boats, which take their fish and furnish them 

 with supplies and provisions. The dealers estimate the average catch 



