94 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



and If cents for No. 3. The trout average 4 pounds in weight, and 

 bring from 2£ cents to 4 cents per pound. The price of* herring is about 

 2 cents. 



Preparation and trade. — Apart from the salted products, about all the 

 fish shipped from the Bay de Noquet pass through the hands of firms 

 at Fairport or at Escanaba. The collecting steamers belonging to these 

 firms make the round of the fishing stations at frequent intervals. Some 

 of the salted fish are shipped directly by the fishermeu; others are sold 

 at Sack Bay, from whence they are shipped, mostly to Chicago. In 



1884 three thousand hundred-pound packages, including a good many 

 purchased from the fishermen of Point aux Barques and the islands, 

 were handled by a Sack Bay firm; but the official returns made for 



1885 show only six hundred and fifteen packages shipped in that year. 

 The firm purchases no other fish, and sells those from its own pound- 

 nets to the two fresh-fish firms. 



There is very little utilization of secondary products in this region. 

 The firm at Snake Island and the Oconto fishermen at Nahina save 

 the sounds of the sturgeon, and the last named make caviare from the 

 eggs. No oil is made, except a little occasionally tried out by the fisher- 

 men for their own use. 



A Fairport firm built a capacious freezer in 1884, and about 47 tons 

 of fish were frozen in it before the close of the season. About half of 

 that quantity was whitefish, 4,200 pounds herring, and the rest trout, 

 with a few scattering pickerel (i. e., wall-eyed pike). They were shipped 

 to Chicago in the early part of 1885. The same firm salted six hundred 

 packages of the fish caught in its own pound-nets, but did not handle 

 any other salt fish. 



Statistics. — The total number of men employed in the fisheries of the 

 Bay de Noquet in 1885 was 105, besides 10 shoresmen engaged in the 

 handling and preparation of the products. A moderate estimate of 

 the population directly dependent on these would be 250. The number 

 of gill-net boats was about 20, of pile-drivers and pullers 8, and of small 

 row-boats, not elsewhere included, 5. One steam-tug and two schoon- 

 ers were employed in collecting fish, and three tugs in gill-net fishing. 

 The entire value of the vessels was $13,000, and of the boats $10,325. 

 Three thousand two hundred and forty gill-nets, equal to 135,600 fath- 

 oms, and 44 pound-nets were used, besides one seine and a number of 

 fyke-nets. The capital invested in these apparatus of capture was 

 $36,145, in buildings and wharves $21,500, and in fixtures and minor 

 apparatus $4,350, besides a cash capital of $23,000, making a total of 

 $108,320. 



The products sold fresh in 1885 were 265,278 pounds of whitefish, 

 262,563 pounds of trout, 99,192 pounds of sturgeon, 15,731 pounds of 

 wall-eyed pike, 29,715 pounds of herring, 4,000 pounds of black bass, 

 and 11,000 pounds of miscellaneous fish, nearly all perch and suckers. 

 Those salted amounted to 1,518 packages of whitefish, 812 packages of 



