64 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Statistics. — In 1885 there were twenty-two men, with three hundred 

 and fifteen gill-nets, five pound-nets, aud three seines, engaged in fish- 

 ing from Marquette, the catch amounting to 387,680 pounds, made upas 

 follows: 101,400 pounds of whitefish, 163,810 pounds of siscowet, 96,320 

 pounds of trout, 21,150 pounds of herring, and 5,000 pounds of other 

 fish. Of these, 49,250 pouuds were salted, the remainder being sold 

 fresh. No fish are smoked at Marquette, and no oil, isinglass,* or 

 caviare is prepared. . The total value of the products was $13,250. 



Gill-net fishery. — Gill -nets are more extensively used than any other 

 form of apparatus, and have been fished from the earliest settlement of 

 the place, though formerly in limited quantities. In 1864 there were but 

 two boats, and in 1873 there were still only three or four crews. In 

 1874 the first steamer, the Siscoivet, was brought to the locality and 

 engaged in the gill-net fishing for a short time. In 1878 a second steamer 

 was employed. In 1880 Detroit fishermen brought another steamer 

 to the harbor, and in 1881 there were four steamers from Detroit and 

 two local steamers. In 1885 there were two steamers, both owned and 

 fished by residents of Marquette, and, in addition, two sailboats, with 

 crews of two men each. The fishing begins as soon as the ice will admit 

 in the spring, and continues till late in December and occasionally till 

 the middle of January. At first the nets are set wherever open waters 

 can be found, but later they are usually placed in 40 to 90 fathoms of 

 water almost anywhere along the shore, there being no special fishing- 

 grounds. The catch, according to Captain Peters, is about 40 per cent, 

 siscowet, 35 per cent, trout, and 25 per cent, whitefish. 



Pound-net fishery. — Pound-nets were never more extensively employed 

 than in 1884, when seven nets were fished within a few miles of Mar- 

 quette. The first pound-net was brought to the locality from Lake 

 Ontario, in 1865, and set within half a mile of the village. In 1872 two 

 or three more pound nets were brought to the place, since which time 

 this fishery has been continuously prosecuted. The catch in 1884 

 amounted to about 2 tons of fish to the net, but in 1885 it did not ex- 

 ceed three-quarters of a ton. The catch is about two-thirds whitefish 

 and the remainder herring and trout in about equal quantities. Suckers 

 are taken in considerable numbers, but are seldom saved. 



Seine fishery.— The seine fishing is of little importance, though seines 

 have been used for about thirty years. There are three at the present 

 time, of very small mesh, fished in the harbor during the mouths of 

 Juue and July, the catch, which amounts to about 50 barrels apiece, be- 

 ing mostly young whitefish. 



Other fisheries.— Set-lines were formerly fished by the boat-fishermen, 

 in connection with their gill-nets, each boat being provided with one 

 gang of either one or two hundred hooks, but for the last five or six 

 years none have been employed. 



There is little icefishing and no herring-netting of importance. 



