FISHERIES OF THE GREAT LAKES IN 1885. 135 



to 495 feet in length ; pots 24 feet square and from 18 to 26 feet deep. 

 Further south the nets are larger; those at Horsehoe Bay, Thayerport, 

 and Little Harbor have leaders 1,237 to over 1,800 feet long, with pots 

 of from 30 to 44 feet square, and 35 to 76 feet deep. The size of mesh 

 in these large nets is from 7 to 9 inches in the leads, 6 or 7 inches in 

 the hearts, and from 3 to 4 inches in the pots. Several of them have a 

 20 foot strip of netting with a 2 inch mesh on each side of the pot. Va- 

 rious types of boats are used in handliug the nets. One of the kinds 

 observed was the Huron boat. 



The fishing season is usually from June 1 till the middle or last of 

 July ; and from the early part of September until ice begins to close in, 

 about the beginning of December. In 1885 the total number of nets 

 from Ephraim Bay to Little Harbor, inclusive, was 17, valued at $6,300; 

 fishermen employed, 27; the number of boats used was 11, worth $740, 

 and the value of the shore-houses and accessories was estimated at $975. 

 The total catch amounted to 182,905 pounds, worth $5,873. Of this 

 87,165 pounds of whitefish, worth $3,200 ; 17,430 pounds of trout, worth 

 $699; and 41,675 pounds of other fish worth $526, were sold fresh ; and 

 13,410 pounds of whitefish, worth $680; 4,025 pounds of trout, worth 

 $201, and 19,200 pounds of herring, worth $576, were salted. 



Gill-net fishery. — Gill-nets have been used along this coast — chiefly 

 near Fish Creek — both in summer and winter, for about forty years. 

 The fishery reached its height between 1870 and 1873 when there were 

 fifty or sixty crews engaged in it. A resident of Sturgeon Bay, who 

 was then dealing at Fish Creek, states that in six weeks he paid out 

 $40,000 for salt fish caught along the neighboring shore. At that 

 time, and even until 1883, the entire catch was salted ; then the ship- 

 ment of fresh fish from Sturgeon Bay to Chicago was begun. Two 

 years later three-fifths of the fish taken were sold fresh, a large part 

 of them going through the hands of Green Bay and Sturgeon Bay deal- 

 ers. 



In 1885 there were altogether twenty-eight crews, containing fifty- 

 four men, employed in gill-netting. These were distributed as follows : 

 Sister Bay, four crews ; Ephraim, two crews; Fish Creek and Cham- 

 bers Island, twelve crews ; Egg Harbor, three crews ; Horseshoe Bay, 

 one crew ; Thayerport, two crews ; Little Harbor, four crews. Besides 

 these there were nearly a dozen farmers, each of whom had a little flat- 

 bottomed boat and two or three nets, and caught whitefish for a week 

 or two in the beginning of November, salting his catch for winter use. 

 Some of the nets are of the ordinary size; that is, 40 to 50 fathoms 

 long, 14 or 16 meshes deep, and with a mesh of from 4J to 6 inches ; 

 but 235 nets, constituting the entire outfit of ten crews working from 

 Fish Creek in summer, are of double size, 90 fathoms long and 19 

 meshes deep, with a 5J-inch mesh ; and the J 52 nets used at Thayer- 

 port in winter are from 50 to 52 fathoms long and 30 meshes deep, 

 with a mesh of 4, 4 J, 5 J, or 6 inches. All of the nets at Fish Creek 



