FISHERIES OF THE GREAT LAKES IN 1885. 



103 



Shipments of fresh and frozen fish in 1884 by a firm at Escandba. 



Month. 



White- 

 fish. 



Trout. 



Sturgeon. 



Bass. 



Dories. 



Perch. 



Miscella- 

 neous. 



Total. 





Pounds. 

 9,000 

 61, 000 

 70, 000 

 103, 000 

 91, 000 

 42, 000 

 69, 000 

 30, 000 

 67, 000 



Pounds. 

 14, 000 

 85, 000 

 50, 000 

 59, 000 

 17, 000 

 34, 000 

 29, 000 

 4,000 



Pounds. 



Pounds. 



Pounds. 



11,000 



20, 000 



10, 000 



8,000 



7,000 



8,000 



8,000 



2,000 



24, 000 



Pounds. 



Pounds. 



Pounds. 

 34, 000 





2,000 



14, 000 



13, 000 



21, 000 



2,000 



4,000 



3,666 



4,666 





\T&, 000 







144, 000 











18?, 000 





1,000 

 2,000 

 3,000 





7,000 

 1, 000- 



144, 000 







89, 000 







113,000 









36, 000 













91, 000 

















Total 



542, 000 



292,000 



56, 000 



9,000 



98, 000 



4,000 



8,000 



1,009,000 



Description of shipping cars. — The cars used in shipping the fish con- 

 sist of a box mounted on a four-wheeled iron track and having an iron 

 tongue at one end. The larger size employed is 6 feet 4 inches long, 

 40 inches wide, and 3 to 3J feet deep, inside measurement, with wheels 

 1 foot in diameter. The walls are made double, of matched seven- 

 eighths-inch boards, with an intervening space of about 2 inches con- 

 taining packing material. The small fish cars are 55 inches long, 29 

 inches wide, and 28 inches deep, with walls 3 inches thick and wheels 

 9 inches in diameter. The quota of fish to each large car in warm 

 weather is 1,800 pounds, and in cold weather 2,000 pounds. The small 

 cars have a capacity of about 800 pounds. 



Other notes on trade. — In addition to the fresh fish handled in 1884 

 there were salted about one hundred packages of whitefish and the 

 same quantity of trout. There is also at Escauaba a local dealer who 

 drives along the shore, between Misery Bay and the city, and buys fresh 

 fish to the amount of 600 or 700 pounds a week. The fishermen ship 

 their own salt fish by steamer. 



Statistics. — The number of men employed in the fisheries in 1885 was 

 84, in addition to 9 men at work on shore in receiving and preparing 

 the products. One steamer was employed regularly in collecting fish, 

 and 6 gill-net boats, 8 pound-net boats, and 16 scows and small boats 

 were used in the fisheries. Nine hundred and thirty-five gill- nets, 37 

 pound-nets, 9 haul-seines, and several fyke-nets were fished. The total 

 value of floating property was $11,021, that of the apparatus of cap- 

 ture was $7,030, and that of shore property, including cash capital, 

 $44,710. The products consisted of 401,494 pounds of fresh and frozen 

 fish, 118,800 pounds of salted fish, and 520,294 pounds of smoked fish; 

 the total value, including caviare and isinglass, amounting to $34,948. 



Gill-net fishery. — Several years ago there were nearly twenty gill- 

 nets between Peninsula Point and the dividing line of Delta and Me- 

 nominee Counties. At that time fish were so plenty that one of the 

 fishermen with a sail-boat claims to have caught $5,000 worth of fish in 

 a single season about 1881. A diminished productiveness has caused 

 this branch of the business to decline, and there are now within the 

 same limits not more than half a dozen crews. They make their head- 



