88 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



dian blood. A few have been very successful in the prosecution of the 

 fisheries, some having accumulated considerable property from this 

 source. A small percentage own pound-nets and others have mackinaw 

 boats and gill-nets, but the majority are content to work for wages 

 varying from $20 to $35 per month. A few boats are owned by the 

 dealers and fished on shares, but a majority of the apparatus is pur- 

 chased outright or obtained on credit from the dealers, to be paid 

 for with fish. The gill-net boats begin fishing in early spring at St. 

 Helena Island and on the adjacent shore, coming later to Seul Choix, 

 where they remain until the middle of September. The men then re- 

 turn to their homes, put their nets in order, and by the first of October 

 begin fishing in the vicinity of Naubinway and Gros Cape, where 

 they remain until late in December. The pound-nets are used from 

 June till September, when many of them are taken out and moved to 

 other localities for the fall fishing, some of the fishermen setting addi- 

 tional nets at this season. Herring were formerly extensively taken 

 about Gros Cape, but the catch has been much reduced in recent 

 years, and fewer herring pound-nets are now fished. 



Statistics of men, apparatus, and capital. — During 1885 there were 

 178 fishermen, distributed as follows : Seventy-eight at Gros Cape, St. 

 Helena Island, and vicinity; 25 at Epoufette; 36 at Naubinway; 39 

 at Orville (locally known as Scott's Point) and Seul Choix. Forty- 

 six of the men were engaged in tending the 68 pound-nets, and 122 

 others were employed on the 55 gill-net boats, two or three men consti- 

 tuting a crew, with about 100 nets to the boat. 



The total capital invested in the fisheries was $83,895, divided as fol- 

 lows : Two collecting tugs, $4,000 ; 55 gill-net boats, 33 pound-net boats, 

 3 seine-boats, 19 pile-drivers, 16 rafts, and 13 small boats, $11,635; 5,580 

 gill-nets, 1,513,350 feet in length, $30,492; 68 pound-nets, $27,275; 3 

 seines, 16,200 feet in length, $225: 100 spears, $300; wharves and 

 buildings, $4,600; other apparatus and accessories, $3,448; working 

 capital, $1,850. 



Products and trade. — The catch consists chiefly of whitefish, with con- 

 siderable quantities of trout and a few sturgeon, suckers, and herring, 

 suckers being usually thrown away, and many of the sturgeon sharing 

 the same fate. Until recently the entire catch was salted, but for the 

 past few years steam and sail collecting boats have visited the locality 

 from Mackinaw Island, Manistique, and St. James, and purchased con- 

 siderable quantities of fish, which are packed in ice and sent to Detroit 

 and Chicago. In 1885 the catch for this portion of the coast amounted 

 to 538,266 pounds of whitefish, 10,420 pounds of Menominee whitefish, 

 135,444 pounds of trout, 10,000 pounds of sturgeon, 4,720 pounds of 

 herring, 12,530 pounds of suckers, sold fresh ; and 989,990 pounds of 

 whitefish, 26,000 pounds of Menominee whitefish, 202,360 pounds of trout, 

 5,000 pounds of sturgeon, 30,500 pounds of herring, and 114,960 pounds 

 of suckers, salted. Of the salt whitefish 868,300 pounds were No. 1, 



