234 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OP FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Among the causes and conditions which have operated to promote 

 the fishery interests of the lake and to give them the importance which 

 they have attained, may be mentioned the early settlement of the lake 

 region, and the consequent early inauguration of fishing as an easy 

 and at that time probably necessary method for obtaining food. 



Aside from artificial propagation, which has had a marked influence 

 on the development and perpetuation of the fisheries in this as in other 

 lakes, the natural conditions appear to have. been potent in maintain- 

 ing them. The shallowness of a large portion of the lake has made it 

 possible to set certain kinds of apparatus in greater quantities aud 

 over larger areas than would otherwise be practicable. Extermination 

 of the most valuable species would, however, soon be accomplished 

 were it not for the existence of vast spawning grounds in the region of 

 the most extensive fishing operations, namely, in the vicinity of the isl- 

 ands in the western end .of the lake, and the fact that the existence of 

 these has made it possible, in recent years, to carry on artificial propa- 

 gation in that locality upon a scale which is sufficient to prevent the de- 

 pletion that otherwise would occur. 



Many who are conversant with the subject believe that the growth of 

 the fisheries of the western portion of the lake, at least, is due largely to 

 the fact that the state laws do not unnecessarily embarrass or restrict 

 the fishermen in their work. 



Pound-net fishery. — This is the most extensive fishery in the lake. 

 The first nets were set in Maumee and Sandusky Bays about 1850, 

 but pounds did not come into general use till between 1800 and 1870, 

 when they were rapidly introduced along the shores west of Huron, 

 Ohio. In the eastern portion of the lake pound-nets came but recently 

 into use, but they are becomiug the paramount form of apparatus in 

 many communities, and the number set will probably be largely aug- 

 mented in a few years, to the promotion of the fishery interests of tho 

 region. 



The pound-net fishery of Lake Erie is at the present time practically 

 confined to that portion of the lake west of Cleveland. East of that 

 city the nets are scattered and comparatively few in number, there 

 being but seven between Cleveland and Fairport, fourteen at Fairport, 

 aud nineteen at Erie, while west of Cleveland there are no less than 

 eight hundred and eighty-eight pounds, which are located at very short 

 distances and in longer or shorter strings along the entire coast-line 

 from Cleveland to the mouth of the Detroit River. 



Owing to the shallowness of the water in the western end of the 

 lake, pound-nets can be set at long distances from the shore. There is 

 no reason, indeed, why they could not be continued in an unbroken 

 line entirely across the lake. The longest strings of nets occur between 

 Vermillion and Sandusky, also west of Port Clinton and between it 

 and Maumee Bay. In the former locality are three strings, containing 

 twenty, twenty-one, and twenty-two pounds, respectively, and several 



