FISHERIES OF THE GREAT LAKES IN 1885. 153 



pound when tbe trout and sturgeon are selling for 5 cents. The steamer 

 fishermen have their own ice houses, and in winter cut enough ice to last 

 them through the next fishing season. Only one of the steamers dis- 

 posed of its catch in Milwaukee, the others selling in Chicago. All but 

 one of the sail-boats, on the contrary, sold locally. 



The miscellaneous fishermen ship their crayfish to Chicago and the 

 eading cities of the East, but the perch, lawyers, suckers, and eel- 

 pouts are peddled about the streets of Milwaukee. 



Trade. — Twenty-five years ago Milwaukee furnished the entire supply 

 of fishing products for Chicago, as well as for the home market. In 

 recent years there have been four principal dealers who buy directly 

 from the fishermen and from shippers in all parts of the lakes, and han- 

 dle on an average about 30,000 pounds offish a week, only one-sixth of 

 which is sold locally, the remainder being shipped chiefly to towns in 

 Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri. Each of the firms 

 has from one to five teams, which are used both in peddling and collect- 

 ing fish. 



The 8mokedfish business. — The smoking of fish is a noticeable feature 

 of the Milwaukee trade. This practice has existed in the city from its 

 earliest days, and is said to have been introduced by a Prussiau. who 

 shipped fresh fish to Chicago aud smoked small fish for local consump- 

 tion. The business is more important than ever before, and is still 

 growing. The fishermen do not usually smoke their own fish, but turn 

 them over to the smoke-houses, of which there are eight or nine located 

 on an island near the fishing camps. Several of them belong to the 

 same firm%by which the fresh fish trade is carried on. These ship half 

 of their smoked fish to the West and South, but the other smokers sell 

 their entire output in Milwaukee and its environs for immediate con- 

 sumption. The buildings devoted to smoking are usually small brick 

 or wooden structures, worth about $50 each, exclusive of the land on 

 which they are. 



Most of the smoking is done between May and November. During 

 this part of the year each house prepares from 250 to 2,000 pounds 

 weekly. Several smokers confine their operations entirely to four 

 months in the summer, and those who continue during the winter do 

 not smoke over a ton a month. About half of the fish smoked are 

 sturgeon, 8,000 or 10,000 pounds are herring, and the rest trout and 

 whitefish in equal proportions. Most of the sturgeon for smoking are 

 brought from Green Bay, Detroit, and Frankfort, the whitefish from 

 various places on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, and partly from 

 the local seine fishermen, and the trout from the local line and gill-net 

 fishermen, who usually in this way dispose of their soft fish which 

 would otherwise be unsalable. 



The price received for the smoked sturgeon at wholesalers 12J cents 

 a pound, and for whitefish and trout 10 cents. The fish lose one-third 

 of their bulk in process of smoking. 



