128 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



consisted of about 30,000 pounds of perch, pike, and pickerel, herring, 

 and suckers, valued at $500. 



Hand-lines and set-lines. — No hand-lines are used in the commercial 

 fisheries, and there are only nine set-lines, with one hundred hooks each, 

 along the entire stretch of coast. These are employed for catfish, which 

 are sold fresh to Green Bay dealers at 3 cents a pound dressed. One 

 farmer and one seine fisherman are the owners of the lines and use them 

 more or less throughout the season of open water, but principally in the 

 month of June. 



43. LITTLE STURGEON AND VICINITY, DOOR COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 



Population. — The residents between Namur and the entrance to Stur. 

 geon Bay are extensively interested in the fisheries. Most of them 

 farm in summer and fish in winter, but there are some who throughout 

 the year give their attention exclusively to fishing. They are of several 

 nationalities; towards Namur nearly all are Belgians, while further 

 north they are mostly Scandinavians, with a few native-born Ameri- 

 cans. There are no villages with the exception of Little Sturgeon, sit- 

 uated just inside the entrance to Little Sturgeon Bay. The present 

 population is not over 75; though seven or eight years ago, when a 

 lumber-mill was in regular operation, the number was several times as 

 large. Between 1870 and 1872 large quantities of ice were cut here in 

 winter and shipped to Chicago, but that business was not continued, 

 and since 1877 fishiug and farming have been the only occupations. 



Character of shore and fisheries. — The neighboring shores though not 

 very high are generally rather bold. The bottom is too rocky to admit 

 of the use of seines, and the fishing is carried on exclusively with pounds, 

 gill-nets, and fykes. 



Disposition of catch.— In 1875 and previously the entire catch was 

 salted, but at present it is sold fresh, none at all being salted and none 

 being smoked except occasional lots of sturgeon for home use. Nearly 

 one-third of the winter catch is bought by a local firm. 



Statistics. — The number of fishermen in this region in 1885 was 87, and 

 the total amount of capital invested was $17,260, of which $7,000 was in 

 the pound-net fishery, $10,910 in the gill-net fisheries, and $350 in the 

 fyke-net fishery. The products amounted to 377,055 pounds, valued at 

 $15,500, and divided as follows among the different species : 201,400 

 pounds white-fish, 40,425 pounds trout, 61,530 pounds herring, and 

 64,700 pounds of perch, sturgeon, suckers, and minor species. The en- 

 tire catch with the exception of 12,500 pounds, valued at $655, was sold 

 fresh. 



Pound-net fishery. — Prior to the opening of the canal connecting the 

 head of Sturgeon Ba^y with Lake Michigan there were very few 

 pound-nets around its mouth, but new currents admitted by the canal 

 brought to the spot great quantities of fish, and there are now twenty 



