FISHERIES OF THE GREAT LAKES IN 1885. 257 



divisions: The "Peninsula," the Bass Islands, Kelley's Island, and 

 Sandusky Bay. 



M The Peninsula," as it is locally called, is the strip of land which 

 separates Sandusky Bay along its whole northern side from the waters 

 of the lakes. At Port Clinton it is quite narrow, but gradually widens 

 and forks into two broad portions directed toward the north and east, 

 respectively. Most of the northern portion is nearly separated from 

 the rest of the peninsula by a narrow inlet, which connects with the 

 lake on the northeast and approaches to within less than a quarter of 

 a mile of it on the southwest. Although it thus lacks a little of being 

 wholly surrounded by water, this portion of the peninsula is universally 

 known as Catawba Island. Four or five miles north of Catawba Island 

 lies the most southern of the Bass Islands. The eastern part of the 

 peninsula extends just beyond the entrance of Sandusky Bay, and has 

 the village of Marblehead at its extreme point. Kelley's Island is about 

 4 miles north of Marblehead light, 6 miles northeast of Catawba Island, 

 and the same distance southeast of South Bass Island. Sandusky Bay is 

 accessible only through a comparatively narrow channel, as a long nar- 

 row spit called Cedar Point extends from the southeast nearly across 

 its mouth. The pound-nets running out from this spit are the eastern 

 limit of the fisheries carried on from Sandusky. 



The fisheries of Sandusky Bay are quite distinct in their general 

 character from those of the open lakes, though both are very exten- 

 sive. 



Apparatus and species. — On the outer shores of the peninsula and of 

 Cedar Point and about the islands the most abundant species are 

 whitefish and herring, but in the bay these do not occur, and the ob- 

 jects of pursuit are principally perch, saugers, bass, bull-heads, and 

 other species characteristic of the bays and river mouths. Pound-nets 

 are the most popular form of apparatus in the former section, where 

 their number exceeds three hundred, though thousands of gill-nets are 

 fished in the vicinity of the islands, and eight steam- tugs and a large 

 number of sail-boats devote themselves to this branch of the industry. 

 All the fishing of the bay, with the exception of a little seining at the 

 western end, is by means of fykes and small pound-nets, which dot its 

 shallow waters to the number of nine or ten hundred. Several seines 

 are fished from the peninsula, both on the lake and the bay sides, and 

 the fyke-nets so numerous in the bay are also found in considerable 

 numbers on the lake shore, though not used to any extent upon the 

 islands. In summer several score of men on the peninsula and a third 

 as many more on the islands fish for catfish with set-lines ; and in 

 winter a little fishing is carried on with lines through the ice which 

 gathers between the islands and with spears in the harbors of the 

 peninsula. There is considerable angling for black bass and other 

 species by summer visitors to the islands, which will be referred to fur* 



H, Mis. 133 X7 



