FISHERIES OF THE GREAT LAKES IN 1885. 93 



Fishing centers. — The principal fisheries are those with pound-nets at 

 Long Point, above Peninsula Point, the western promontory of the bay, 

 and with gill-nets from Sack Bay, just below Fayette. Nahina, although 

 its name is the Ojibway word for sturgeon, and was first suggested by 

 the abundance of that species in the vicinity, is inhabited only by the 

 hands employed in the single saw-mill which gives the place its exist- 

 ence. A crew of pound -net fishermen from Oconto make their head- 

 quarters there, however, during the fishing season. Ogontz is the 

 headquarters of a single crew of pound-net and fyke-net fishermen, and 

 another firm belonging at the village fishes from the vicinity of Fayette. 

 Brompton is entirely without fishing interests. The village of Garden 

 is a little inland, and there are only about a dozen houses at the dock. 

 It has a large mill and a store connected with it, and one pound-net 

 fisherman lives a short distance above the landing. Some of the resi- 

 dents of Garden are engaged in burning charcoal for the blast-furnace 

 at Fayette. Fayette has no saw-mills, and, apart from the furnace, is 

 mostly dependent upon the trade with the inland farming community. 

 An Ogontz firm has a fish-house on Snake Island, close to the village, 

 from which it operates important pound-net fisheries. Several miles 

 south of the last-named place is Sack Bay, where there are about fifteen 

 families of fishermen. Summer Island, lying just off Point Detour, was 

 once the home of fifteen or twenty families, all of them more or less de- 

 pendent upon the fisheries; but in 1885 there remained only four fam- 

 ilies, with two crews of fishermen. "Rocky Island is entirely barren, and 

 is at present uninhabited. It frequently happens, however, that fisher- 

 men from Sack Bay, Fairport, or elsewhere, spend a month or two on 

 the island with their families during the height of the season. When 

 fishing was good a number of people lived there permanently and had 

 a school-house and school-teacher. 



Fishermen. — Most of the fishermen of the bay are Americans, but 

 there is a small sprinkling of Swedes and other nationalities. 



Species. — The principal species obtained are trout, whiten* sh, and 

 sturgeon. Many hundred dollars' worth of herring and wall-eyed pike 

 or a dories" are taken, particularly in the pound-nets ; and the remain- 

 der of the catch is made up of the little-esteemed varieties, such as perch 

 and suckers. The lawyers are considered worthless and are thrown 

 away. In the vicinity of Sack Bay very few herring or suckers are found. 

 The catch in the western part of the Bay de Noquet is principally 

 whitefish, with hardly any trout ; in the eastern part there is a great 

 preponderance of trout. The proportion of whitefish is much larger in 

 the fall than in the spring. Near its head the sturgeon is the princi- 

 pal species, and pike are found in considerable numbers, while black 

 bass also form an appreciable element in the catch. 



Weight and prices. — The whitefish average from 2 to 3 pounds in 

 weight, and bring about 4J cents per pound fresh. When salted they 

 usually sell for about 4 cents per pound for No. 1, 3J cents for No. 2, 



