254 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



ermen of Port Clinton, gives the following as the result of his observa- 

 tions regarding the abundance and size of fish : The number of white- 

 fish caught annually in the lake is as large as at any time in the past, 

 the smaller number to each net resulting from the great increase in the 

 amount of apparatus employed. Herring are scarcer in the vicinity of 

 Port Clinton than formerly, and the number of sturgeon has decreased 

 rapidly in the past ten years. There is no observable change in the 

 average size of fish except in the case of herring, which have increased 

 in size. The average size of the whitefish caught in pound-nets is 3J 

 pounds, while those caught in gill-nets on the spawning reefs average 

 4J pounds. 



Trade. — A large proportion of the yield of the fisheries of this shore 

 is handled at Port Clinton, where there is a capacious freezer, in which, 

 in 1885, 90,000 pounds of whitefish, 10,000 pounds of sturgeon, 240,000 

 pounds of herring, and 30,000 pounds of perch and wall-eyed pike 

 were frozen. Another market is at Locust Point, where sturgeon are 

 purchased from the fishermen and caviare and isinglass are prepared 

 for market. When the first demand for sturgeon began, in 1872, the 

 fishermen were anxious to dispose of their fish at 18 cents each, but 

 the ruling price of late has been $1 each, irrespective of size. At Tous- 

 saint Creek almost all of the fish are shipped fresh by " running boats," 

 also called u fresh-fish boats," to Port Clinton, Sandusky, or Huron, and 

 sometimes to Toledo. The quantity of salt fish put up or handled by 

 the dealers was 80,000 pounds, of which 50,000 pounds were herring 

 and the rest saugers. The fresh fish handled amounted to considerably 

 over 2,500,000 pounds, divided as follows : Whitefish, 60,000 pounds 

 round, with a value to the fishermen of $4,200; bass, 35,000 pounds, 

 valued at $2,100 ; wall-eyed pike, 58,000 pounds, valued at $3,480 ; her- 

 ring, 800,000 pounds, valued at $10,000; sturgeon, 75,000 pounds, 

 valued at $1,800; saugers, 1,000,000 pounds, valued at $15,000; bull- 

 heads and catfish, 500,000 pounds, valued at $15,000; miscellaneous 

 "hard fish," principally grass pike, 32,000 pounds, valued at $1,600; 

 and miscellaneous " soft fish," principally perch and suckers, 115,000 

 pounds, valued at $1,725. Fourteen hundred pounds of caviare worth 

 $166, 27 pounds of isinglass, worth $38, and 2,500 gallons of oil, worth 

 $1,125, were prepared. Formerly large quantities of frogs and turtles 

 were caught in the marshes along this strip of coast and were handled 

 by the Port Clinton dealers. Although the number has fallen off greatly, 

 5 tons of turtles and several hundred dozen frogs were handled in 1885. 



/Statistics of fisheries. — The number of persons employed in the fisher- 

 ies in 1885, from Toussaint Creek to Port Clinton, inclusive, was 187, of 

 whom 132 were fishermen, 22 shoremen, 31 preparators, and 2 mechanics. 

 The total number of persons dependent upon these men was 416. One 

 steam-vessel worth $500 was employed in fishing, and two worth $13,000 

 in collecting fish. Four sail-boats, valued at $1,500, were also collecting. 

 The other boats used were 13 gill-net boats, 5 pound-net boats, 6 seine- 



