i)8 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



mouth, respectively, are the Ford and Bark Rivers, which, with the short 

 strip extending from the latter stream to the boundary line between 

 Delta and Menominee Counties, will naturally be included in the present 

 discussion. The waters of the bay are from 4 to 15 fathoms in depth, 

 averaging about 7 fathoms. Large shoals, covered with 3 to 18 feet of 

 water, occur below Squaw Point on the eastern side, and between Esca- 

 naba and Ford Eiver on the west. Below Indiantown the bottom shelves 

 abruptly off from the shore to a depth of 4 or 5 fathoms, increasing to 

 from 7 to 12 fathoms at a distance of 2 miles. 



Fishing stations. — The only noteworthy settlements on the bay are 

 the little village of Mason ville, near its head, and the city of Escanaba, 

 which is the center of the fishing interests of the whole region. The 

 present prominence of Escanaba as a fishing center began in 1880, 

 when a freezer was built, and by fall it was ready to receive its first 

 fish. Six men are now employed there the year round in handling the 

 fish, with three or four extra hands during the height of the season. At 

 the mouth of Ford River is Misery Bay, where there live two or three 

 families, several members of which are engaged in the pound-net fishery, 

 and Indiantown lies about half-way between Ford and Bark Rivers. 



Extensive pound-net fisheries are carried ou, and there are a number 

 of seine and gill-net crews working in summer, besides considerable 

 winter gill-net fishing through the ice. Most of the pound-nets belong 

 at Escanaba, and the greater part of the seines are owned and fished at 

 Masonville. 



Species. — Whitefish are by far the most important species to the fish- 

 ermen of this region. In addition to the common whitefish several 

 special varieties are distinguished by the fishermen, principal among 

 which are the blackbacks or menominees (Goregonus quadrilateralis) and 

 the bluefins or blackfins ( G. nigripinnis). Very few long-jaws (G. tullibee) 

 are obtained. In 1884 about one-fourth of the whitefish from North 

 Point were bluefins, though none of that kind were found until after 

 the middle of October. Two years previously nearly all from Long Point 

 were bluefins and this variety made up most of the entire catch of the 

 region. The blackbacks are fish weighing from 4 to 6 pounds each, said 

 ' to be native to this bay. No siscowet are found in this or any other 

 branch of Green Bay, as the water is not of sufficient depth, and even the 

 ordinary trout are very scarce here. Whitefish constitute the principal 

 catch of both the pound-nets and gill-nets. A few trout are obtained 

 in the pound-nets and a great many by the gill-net fishermen. Pike 

 and pickerel, here classed together as dories, are caught mostly in the 

 seines, but are also obtained to some extent by the pound-net fisher- 

 men. They are rarely or never secured in the gill-nets. Herring are 

 taken only in the pound-nets, and mostly during their spawning run 

 in the late fall and early winter. Sturgeon are caught by the pound-nets 

 for several months in the year, Black bass and bull-heads are obtained 



