90 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



15 to 20 feet of water, but since 1883 deeper nets have been employed, 

 and they are now set in water varying from 30 to 60 feet. The leaders, 

 which are of 6 inch mesh, are from 495 to 990 feet long, and the pound 

 proper is from 28 to 35 feet square, with 2- to 3J-inch mesh. The aver- 

 age value of the nets is about $350. The fishing season begins early in 

 June and is very extensive till the middle of July. The nets are oper- 

 ated well into September, and some of them remain in throughout the 

 entire season. Some of those taken out are not reset, but a majority 

 are moved to other localities and fished for whitefish during the spawn- 

 ing season. Formerly most of the nets were between St. Ignace and 

 Naubinway, but now there are few nets east of Epoufette. The majority 

 are in this vicinity and at Seul Choix, where whitefish averaging 5 and 

 6 pounds are taken, some individuals weighing 12 to 15 pounds being 

 occasionally secured. The average catch for a pound-net is estimated 

 at 11,500 pounds, made up as follows: 80 per cent, whitefish, per 

 cent, trout, 4£ per cent, sturgeon, and 9J per cent, lawyers, herring, and 

 other fish having no commercial value. 



The pound-boats are large and well built, many of the keeled boats 

 being 18 to 25 feet long, worth $175 to $225, while the smaller flat-bot- 

 tomed boats, with sails, have a value of $75 to $125. Formerly the pile- 

 drivers were mounted upon two boats lashed together, but now most of 

 the fishermen build rafts of cedar logs, claiming that the stakes can be 

 driven much more securely and in a shorter time in this way. Only one 

 or two instances have occurred where pound-nets have been frozen into 

 the ice and fished during the winter, these as a rule not being suffi- 

 ciently successful to warrant further operations in this line, and for 

 some years no pound-nets have been fished in winter. 



Seining. — This has never been important along the north shore, and 

 the only seines now fished are two or three which are used in the cap- 

 ture of suckers in spring. 



Hand-lines. — Hand-lines have been employed to some extent for sev- 

 eral years. About 1880 a dozen or more of the fishermen used them to 

 a considerable extent, but in 1885 they were seldom employed except 

 by the Indians and others to obtain a supply of salt fish for their own 

 consumption. 



Other fisheries. — No fykes or trammel-nets are employed in the fish- 

 eries here. The spearing is not extensive, though forty or fifty men 

 use spears occasionally during the winter, and about ten or twelve In- 

 dians engage in the work with considerable regularity, freezing their 

 fish and selling them fresh at St. Ignace. 



34. MANISTIQUE AND THOMPSON, SCHOOLCRAFT COUNTY, MICHIGAN. 



Description of the villages. — Manistique and Thompson are two lum- 

 bering settlements of considerable importance, the former located at 

 the mouth of the Manistique River, in the county of Schoolcraft, and 

 the latter about G miles further west. The first-named city is owned by 



