248 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



facturers and are bought by weight. The fishermen do their own tar- 

 ring and seaming. 



Species. — The principal fish taken in the bay and river are bass, 

 wall-eyed pike (locally called u pickerel "), saugers, catfish, bull-heads^ 

 perch, and suckers. The catch of saugers is very extensive, and Toledo 

 is probably the largest market for this species on Lake Erie. The 

 spring catch is much greater than that in the fall, as many kinds of fish 

 ascend the river at that time for the purpose of spawning. White- 

 fish and herring once entered the bay in small numbers, and sturgeon 

 ran up the river by hundreds as far as the rapids above Perry sburgh, 

 but at present these three species are entirely absent. East of Cedar 

 Point, just outside the entrance of the bay, they may still be taken in 

 considerable numbers during the spawning season and for a short time 

 in the spring, although it was conceded by all that whitefish and stur- 

 geon were very much scarcer in 1885 than formerly throughout the re- 

 gion tributary to Toledo, and, in fact, were less abundant everywhere 

 in the western end of Lake Erie. Very few whitefish with eggs fully 

 matured were taken in these waters during the spawning season until 

 1883, since which time the percentage of fish with ripe roe has in- 

 creased so much as to enable the State commissioners to obtain all the 

 eggs needed for the Toledo hatchery from the nets on these grounds. 

 This increase in the catch of spawning-fish is attributed chiefly to the 

 fact that the pound-nets extend out much farther into the lake than 

 they formerly did. 



Trade and preparation of products. — As has been remarked, the fish 

 trade of Toledo is of considerable importance, both the outside ship- 

 ments and the local consumption being quite extensive. There are 

 some half a dozen firms of fish dealers in the city who handle altogether 

 about 3,850,000 pounds of fish, including 220,000 pounds of whitefish, 

 G15,000 pounds of "pickerel" (wall-eyed pike), 52,000 pounds of blue 

 pike (a variety of the same species), 65,000 pounds of bass, 255,000 

 pounds of sturgeon (including oil and caviare), 160,000 pounds of cat- 

 fish, 1,150,000 pounds of herring, 830,000 pounds of saugers, and over 

 500,000 pounds of perch, suckers, and other species, the whole having 

 a first value of $141,200. Most of the trade is in fresh fish, but four of 

 the firms have freezers, in which are frozen yearly a total of 125,000 

 pounds of whitefish, 490,000 pounds of herring, 15,000 pounds of wall- 

 eyed pike, 30,000 pounds of sturgeon, 40,000 pounds of saugers, and 

 20,000 pounds of other fish, chiefly perch. Three of these same firms 

 put up, altogether, 3,500 packages of herring and 2,500 of saugers in 

 brine. 



One firm included in its operations the smoking of herring and stur- 

 geon and the preparation of caviare, isinglass, and oil. Sixty thousand 

 pounds of herring and the same quantity of sturgeon were smoked, and 

 75,000 pounds of caviare, 1,000 pounds of isinglass, and 500 gallons of 

 oil were prepared. 



