FISHERIES OF THE GREAT LAKES IN 1885. 147 



The fishing grounds arc 4 to 12 miles off the harbor on a clay bot- 

 tom, in from 12 to 70 fathoms of water. The shoal water fishing is 

 done only in summer during the spawning season of the trout. The 

 catch consists entirely of trout. Whitefish were formerly the principal 

 object of pursuit, but the gill-net fishermen began to find them scarce 

 twelve or fifteen years ago, though the pound-net ineii did not suffer from 

 the decrease until much later, and even yet catch a good many during 

 certain portions of the season. Before 1870 all of the catch was salted, 

 and afterwards it continued to be the custom to salt most of the fish 

 taken while fishing at the north in the fall, with the exception of a few 

 marketed at Ahuapee. 



Other fisheries. — Twenty years ago there was considerable fyke-net- 

 ting, but the fishery has declined since that time. Grouuds that would 

 otherwise be suitable for seining have been spoiled by mud dumped 

 from dredges, so this fishery is likewise neglected. Seining was exten- 

 sive at one period, but in 1885 only two small seines were in use in the 

 county; these took whitefish. Ten thousand hooks, on trawls, were 

 fished from three boats in the fall of 1885, this beiug the most extensive 

 trial ever given to this form of apparatus in this vicinity. 



50. SHEBOYGAN COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 



Geographical description. — The shore line of Sheboygan Count3 r is about 

 25 miles in extent. Its contour is slightly undulating, and hardly broken 

 by the mouths of the two streams which flow into the lake at or near 

 Sheboygan. The only places where fisheries are in existence are She- 

 boygan, Oostburgh, and Cedar Grove. Sheboygan is a city of 8,000 

 people, and the seat of an important gill- net fishery with steamers and 

 sail-boats. Oostburgh is a village of 300 inhabitants, whose pound-net 

 fisheries give employment to more than twenty men who, with their fami- 

 lies, constitute over a third of the population. Cedar Grove is of about 

 the same size as Oostburgh, and, like it, participates, though to a smaller 

 extent, in the pound-net fishery. 



Character of the fisheries. — The pound-net fishery of Oostburgh and 

 Cedar Grove, the steamer fishery of Sheboygan, and the shore gill-net 

 fishery carried on by the crews of the steamers when their vessels 

 are not running, constitute the entire fishing industry of the county, 

 the occasional set-line and cast-net or " plunk-net n fisheries being too in- 

 significant to merit attention. The steamer fishing is wholly with gill- 

 nets, though set-lines were used to a considerable extent some years 

 ago. 



Species. — A noticeable feature of the fisheries of this region is the 



I great predominance of the blue-fins over the ordinary variety of white- 

 fish. This result is due to the fact that the gill-netters fish chiefly in 

 the deep portion of the lake, which is the favorite resort of the blue- 

 finned variety. Their catch of whitefish consists of 98 per cent, of blue- 

 fins, although the other fishermen get chiefly the typical variety. The 



