FISHERIES OF THE GREAT LAKES IN 1885. 129 



pound-nets between the immediate vicinity of Little Sturgeon and the 

 northern headlands of Sturgeon Bay. 



The nets are in water varying from 11 to G5 feet deep; most of 

 them are set in about 30 feet ; the only ones in a greater depth are two 

 in G5 feet, and four others in 46, 43, 40, and 35 feet, respectively. The 

 length of load is from 577 to 1,320 feet, averagiug 1,155 feet ; the mesh 

 averages 7 inches in the lead, G inches in the heart, and 3J in the pot. 

 The largest size used in the pot is 3£ inches, and the smallest is 2| 

 inches. The value of the twenty nets is $5,000 ; of the boats $200 ; and 

 of the shore property, pile drivers and other accessories $900. There 

 were seventeen pound-net fishermen in 1885, and the products 

 amounted to 98,155 pounds, and sold for $2,400. 



Gill-net fishery. — There were in the year 1885 between Namur 

 and Sawyer, exclusive of those settlements, nine crews fishing with 

 gill-nets during the whole or a part of the season of open water, and 

 thirty-nine crews, including the nine fishing also in summer, who set 

 their nets under the ice. Most of them were composed of farmers who 

 lived permanently in the vicinity, but four of the crews were from Chip- 

 pewa Point, and are included in the statistics of the pound-net fishermen 

 in Big Bay de Noquet, while four others were owners of pound-nets on the 

 neighboring shores. Out of the total number of gill-uet fishermen there 

 were, therefore, eighteen men who have been properly credited to other 

 fisheries or localities, leaving seventy local fishermen who use gill-nets 

 principally or wholly. The number of gill-nets fished is 1,730, worth 

 $8,755. A little over one- eighth are rigged with cork and lead ; all the 

 rest have the old-fashioned float and stone. The value of the boats used 

 in the summer fishing is $345, and that of the shanties used on the ice 

 is $400. The shore-houses and accessories have a total value of $1,410. 

 The summer fishing from Little Sturgeon is carried on very irregularly. 

 Two of the crews fished at Hat Island, off Fish Creek, in 1885. Five 

 others fished at different places along the shore for one or two months 

 in the spring, commencing about the middle of April, and for a month or 

 six weeks in the fall, beginning about the first of November. The other 

 two crews of summer fishermen are farmers, who fish only occasionally 

 during that portion of the year. The winter fishing is carried on from 

 the first or middle of January to the 15th of February. After that it is 

 dangerous to leave the nets in the water, as they are very apt to be en- 

 tirely destroyed by a kind of rot by which they are attacked. This 

 trouble has only arisen in the last five or six years and is attributed 

 by some to the pollution of the water with spoiled fish and offal. 



The total products of the gill-net fisheries of Little Sturgeon and 

 vicinity in 1885 were 252,000 pounds, valued at $12,430. 



Fyke net fishery. — Eight men, who gave their principal attention 



to the pound-net and gill-net fisheries, fished eighteen fyke-nets, worth 



$350, from six weeks to two months in the spring, and occasionally in 



the summer and fall. Most of the nets are 20 feet long, with hoops 3 



H. Mis. 133 9 



