108 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



The fishermen occasionally ship their salt fish from Menominee them- 

 selves, and they sometimes sell at Fairport (Bay de Noquet), or to one 

 of the firms at the city of Green Bay. Sturgeon are never salted ; when 

 there is no buyer at hand, they are thrown back into the pot of the 

 pound-net or put into a pen near the shore. Sometimes they are kept 

 inclosed in a little creek for two or three weeks before being sold. The 

 fishermen have not yet begun to smoke any variety of fish, and that art 

 is yet unknown in the entire region. 



Prices. — In 1884 the prices received by the fishermen for salt herring 

 varied from $1 to $2 per barrel, averaging $1.40. Number 1 whitefish 

 brought $4.50 per barrel and No. 2 less than $3, making the general 

 average for whitefish about $4. Trout sold for from $2 to $3, averag- 

 ing $2.50. Dories brought $2 and suckers $1.25. 



The barrels used cost 45 cents apiece. They are made by individual 

 coopers, one of whom resides at Menominee, one at Dennis, two at 

 Leatham, and three at Cedar River. About 1,000 barrels are made 

 annually at the last-named locality and 500 at each of the others. A 

 barrel of salt, sufficient for preparing about twelve barrels of fish, could 

 be bought for $1.65. 



Statistics. — The fisheries of Menominee County gave employment in 

 1885 to 50 fishermen and 6 shoresmen. There were used in the fish- 

 eries a collecting tug, 18 pound-net boats, and 23 other boats. The 

 apparatus of capture were 215 gill-nets and 42 pound-nets. The value 

 of floating property was $5,440; of pound-nets and gill-nets, $15,000; 

 of buildings, $3,275 ; of accessories, $3,075 ; and of cash capital, $8,100. 

 The products amounted to 21,500 pounds of fresh whitefish, 64,800 pounds 

 of salt whitefish, 7,000 pounds of fresh trout, 23,700 pounds of salt 

 trout, 5,200 pounds of fresh pike, 8,000 pounds of salt pike, 7,209 

 pounds of sturgeon, 21,900 pounds of fresh herring, 779,600 pounds of 

 salt herring, 1,000 pounds of miscellaneous fresh fish, and 15,000 pounds 

 of miscellaneous salt fish, the whole having a value of $15,290. 



Pound-net fishery. — The first pound-net in the county is said to have 

 been set near Menominee in 1858, but the fishery did not begin to be 

 important until the year 1867. More pound-nets were set in the waters 

 of Menominee County in 1884 than at any time since the beginning of 

 the fishery. In that year there were twenty crews, containing 58 men, 

 who employed 46 nets, worth $15,000, and 34 boats and 17 pile-drivers, 

 aggregating $2,150; but in 1885 the number bad fallen off to 15 crews, 

 aggregating 48 men, with 42 nets, worth $13,900, and floating property 

 to the amount of $2,840. The shore property and other capital amounted 

 in 1884 to $10,000, and in 1885 to $8,850. 



The nets have a mesh of 2 to 2f inches in the pot, and are set in 

 water from 6 to 60 feet in depth, averaging 20 or 25 feet. The shortest 

 are the ones set near the shore for sturgeon. A pound-net of ordinary 

 dimensions will have a pot 20 to 38 feet square, a heart 115 to 150 feet 

 long, and a leader about 1,000 feet long. The mesh of the hearts is 



