Fisheries otf Thu great lakes in 1885. 91 



the Chicago Lumber Company, which, owning both the laud and water 

 privileges, has a monopoly of the business interests, and has erected 

 three sawmills, and, in addition, a large number of dwelling-houses, 

 which are rented to the mill hands. Thompson is also an important 

 lumbering town, this being the principal business of the place. 



Character of the fisheries. — The fisheries of this region were formerly 

 in the hands of Indians, who fished with gill-nets and salted consider- 

 able quantities of whitefish and trout. Since the lumber companies 

 have obtained possession, the fishing privileges of Manistique are con- 

 trolled exclusively by a Chicago firm, which has a large ice-house and 

 two collecting steamers, with one tug and one sail-boat engaged in the 

 gill-net fisheries. It has, in addition, five pound-nets fished on shoals 

 a few miles from shore, off the settlement of Naubinway. The fishery 

 privileges of Thompson are controlled by a Detroit firm, which estab- 

 lished a fishing station at Thompson in 1884. It now has six pound- 

 nets, three located near the village and three others about 12 to 15 miles 

 further east. Iu addition it has two steamers engaged in fishing gill- 

 nets, and last year employed also a sail-boat. Four gill-net boats are 

 owned by fishermen of Manistique and two belong to those living at 

 Thompson ; but the fishermen leave these settlements and build camps 

 on the shore between Point aux Barques and Point Detour, salting a 

 large part of the catch and selling occasional lifts fresh to the collect- 

 ing boats. 



Shipments. — The firm at Thompson catches its own fish and ships them 

 fresh to Detroit, but the firm at Manistique, in addition to its own 

 tug and boat fisheries, is extensively engaged in buying fish from the 

 pound-net and gill-net fishermen along all portions of the north shore 

 between St. Helena Island and Point Detour, including the Beaver 

 Islands. In the spring and summer, when the catch of the pound-nets 

 about Seul Choix is extensive, a majority of the fish are purchased in 

 this locality, but later the collecting tugs buy from the Beaver Islands, 

 Epoufette, Naubinway, and Orville fishermen, going occasionally to 

 Gull Island. A portion of the fish are shipped direct to Chicago, and 

 the remainder are sent to the freezing establishment belonging to the 

 same firm at Escauaba, at the head of Green Bay, where they are placed 

 in refrigerators and kept until the demand and prices will warrant their 

 shipment. 



Statistics. — During 1885 these firms employed at Thompson and Man- 

 istique 26 fishermen and 27 shoresmen and preparators. These fished 

 11 pound-nets and 530 gill-nets, using 3 fishing tugs, 2 collecting tugs, 

 and 1 sail-boat. The capital invested in boats, apparatus of capture, fish- 

 cars, shore property, etc., amounted to $56,645. These figures do not 

 include those gill-net fishermen who prosecuted their fishing along the 

 coast further west, and who are included with the fisheries of the region 

 where their camps were located. The catch of the fishermen of Man- 

 istique and Thompson in 1885 amounted to 392,219 pounds of whitefish, 



