FISHERIES OF THE GREAT LAKES IN 1885. 89 



73,940 pounds No. 2, and 91,650 pounds No. 3. The total value of the 

 yield was $81,335, of which $58,004 were for salt fish and $23,335 for 

 fresh fish. The prices paid to the fishermen in 1885 were 3J to 4 cents 

 per pound for fresh whitefish and 2£ cents for trout; the salt whitefish 

 bringing from $1.50 to $5 per package for No. 1, $4 to $4.50 for No. 

 2, and $2.50 to $3 for No. 3, and the salt trout selling for $3 to $3.50. 

 The fresh fish go wholly to Chicago and Detroit, while the most of the 

 salt fish are sent to Chicago, and a few to Cleveland, Detroit, and 

 Buffalo. 



Gill-net fishery. — From the earliest settlement of the region gill-nets 

 have been the most important form of apparatus used. The nets are 40 

 to 45 fathoms long, 4J- to 6-inch mesh, and twelve to sixteen meshes deep. 

 A few cork and lead nets are employed, but fully three quarters are pro- 

 vided with the old-fashioned form of float and stone. The boats, which 

 carry from two to three men, are fitted with fifty to one hundred and 

 fifty or in some cases as many as two hundred nets, these" being fished 

 in gangs of from twenty to thirty each. When new, the boats, which 

 are large well-built mackinaws, cost from $175 to $200, including sails. 

 The fishing frequently begins by the middle of April and by the first of 

 May all of the fishermen are at work, as the catch for the first two or 

 three weeks after the ice breaks up is unusually good. By the middle 

 or last of May fully half of the fishermen of the locality have collected 

 about Seul Choix, where whitefish of large size are abundant. Here 

 they build shanties and remain during the entire summer, selling a por- 

 tion of their fish fresh to collecting steamers from Manistique, and salt- 

 ing the remainder. About the middle of September they leave for their 

 homes and spend a month or six weeks in repairing their nets and get- 

 ting ready for the fall fishing, at which time they catch large quanti- 

 ties of trout, and, by the last of November, a good many spawning white- 

 fish. They continue their work until the ice interferes, which is usually 

 about the 10th or 15th of December. The catch for those having a good 

 outfit of nets and fishing steadily occasionally reaches 400 packages ;: 

 but a fair average for the entire coast is about 225. About 65 per cent, 

 of this catch is whitefish, the remainder being almost exclusively trout. 

 The average whitefish will weigh about 2 J pounds and the average trout 

 3 or 4 pounds. 



Gill net fishing through the ice. — Gill -nets are occasionally fished 

 through the ice in winter, but there is no regular fishing, except in the 

 vicinity of St. Helena Island, Naubinway, and Epoufette. Here about 

 a dozen or fifteen crews are fishing with more or less regularity for five 

 or six weeks. They run from twenty to thirty nets each and catch an 

 average of 2 or 3 tons, the fish being sold fresh in the vicinity to deal- 

 ers at St. Ignace and Mackinaw Island. 



Pound-net fishery.— In 1860 over 1,400 half-barrels of salt fish were 

 taken in a 16-foot net at Biddle's Point, this being the largest catch 

 ever known along this shore. The pounds in former times were set in 



