FISHERIES OF THE GREAT LAKES IN 1885. 117 



eighty-five to the ton. The entrails are often used by the farmers as a 

 fertilizer. 



Shipments and prices. — Most of the products of the fisheries of this 

 county are sent to Chicago, but the caviare and isinglass are shipped 

 to Hamburg, Germany. None of the fish are smoked, although from 

 25 to 40 per cent, of them are salted, the proportions varying from year 

 to year. 



The prices received in 1884 were about as follows : Salt herring, $1.50 

 to $2 a package; fresh herring, 1^ to 2 cents a pound, sometimes rising 

 to 3J cents in winter; perch, 1 cent to 1J cents; whitefish (which are 

 mostly No. 1 in this vicinity), 5 to 8 cents; pike, pickerel, trout, and 

 sturgeon, 4 and 5 cents; No. 2 pike, 3 cents; black bass, 5 and 6 

 cents; and suckers 1 and 2 cents. The suckers when salted are branded 

 as "bay fish" and sold at $1.25 a package. Lawyers or eelpouts are 

 thrown away, except during the winter months. 



Statistics. — There were in 1885, in Oconto County, 110 fishermen, 

 who used 27 pound-net boats, 16 pile-drivers, and 13 other boats in fish- 

 ing 79 pound-nets, 745 gill-nets, 2 seines »and 28 fyke-nets. The capital 

 invested in floating property was $2,319, in pound-nets $10,800, in gill- 

 nets $3,405, in other apparatus of capture $570, in buildings and wharves 

 $7,405, and iu fixtures and accessories $3,510. 



The products during the same year were 576,000 pounds of fresh her- 

 ring, 306,400 pounds of salt herring, 33,430 pounds of fresh whitefish, 

 14,300 pounds of salt whitefish, 17,800 pounds of fresh trout, 1,100 pounds 

 of salt trout, 70,704 pounds of fresh pike and pickerel, 500 pounds of 

 salted pike and pickerel, 110,000 pounds of fresh perch, and a few 

 hundred pounds of salt perch, 27,505 pounds of sturgeon, 65,000 pounds 

 of miscellaneous fresh fish, including black bass, bull-heads, catfish, 

 lawyers, and suckers, particularly the latter, and 26,400 pounds of 

 salted bay-fish, bull-heads, and catfish. The secondary products were 

 1,020 pounds of caviare in kegs of 115 pounds each, and 150 pounds of 

 isinglass, valued' at $1.25 a pound. The total price received by the 

 fishermen for the foregoing was $24,500. 



Pound-net fishery. — Pound-nets were introduced at Little Suamico in 

 1858 and at Oconto in 1861. At present the shores are lined with pound- 

 nets, especially at the mouths of the Oconto and Pensaukee Eivers, 

 where they are set from three to seven in a string. 



The nets have a mesh of 2 to 2J inches in the pot, 4 inches in the 

 hearts, and 4£ iuches in the leader. The hearts generally contain 132 

 feet of netting, and the leader is usually between 660 and 825 feet in 

 length, though it was formerly the custom to have it as long as 1,980 

 feet. The bowl of the ordinary pound-net is 15 to 34 feet deep, averaging 

 about 18 feet, but a variety only 6 or 8 feet deep is also in common use. 

 Occasionally a net of 10 or 11 feet may be found. 



The deep nets are set 2 or 3 miles from land, but the shallow ones are 

 placed much nearer inshore. The deep nets are put in about May 15 for 



