260 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



pound-nets is now nearly twenty. There are no seines or fyke-nets, and 

 the only other fishing is a little catfish hooking in the summer and 

 gill-netting by a single crew in the fall. 



North Bass Island is within a mile or two of the boundary line be- 

 tween the waters of Canada and the United States. The first settle- 

 ment was formed in 1827, and the present inhabitants number between 

 300 and 400 ; they are very intelligent and prosperous, and are for the 

 most part Americans. The shipping facilities are not so good as in the 

 case of the other islands, since it lies somewhat out of the route of the 

 Detroit steamers. East and south of the island the lake bottom is 

 composed of mud and clay, but on the north and west are reefs of 

 honey-combed rock interspersed with small patches of clay and sand, 

 which are probably the best spawning grounds for whitefish in Lake 

 Erie. They extend 3£ miles into the lake from the west side of the 

 island, and on the north side they are about 5 miles square, running 

 some distance into Canadian waters around the little group of islands 

 known as the Old Hen and Chickens. During the run of spawning fish, 

 which lasts throughout the month of November, these reefs are covered 

 with gill-nets. In the fall of 1885, for example, there were about thirty 

 gill-net skiffs there, mostly from North Bass Island, besides six gill-net 

 steamers, of which three were from Conneaut, two from Vermillion, and 

 one from Lorain. The mesh of the nets used is too large to take her- 

 ring and other small fishes, and the catch is almost entirely whitefish, 

 with occasionally a few suckers. This fishery is very profitable when 

 there are no severe storms, but at this season of the year a gale is always 

 liable to occur, and this drives the fish off the reef. If the storm occurs 

 in the early part of the run the fish will return, but towards the end 

 of the season they will not. There is opposition to this fishery on the 

 part of the pound-net men, who think that it should be prohibited by 

 law, so that the fish can spawn without interference or interruption. 

 According to Mr. William Axtell, the first fishing on this island was 

 done with a seine in the fall of 1850 by himself and Mr. John Harden- 

 brook. The first pound-net was set here in 1852, and was of the old 

 style, without a tunnel, as were several nets set by other parties in the 

 following year. About fifteen pound-nets in three or four strings were 

 set from the northern, western, and eastern sides of the island in 1885. 

 Besides the net fisheries there were summer fishing for catfish and 

 winter fishing with hook and line, both on a small scale. 



Kelletfs Island. — Kelley's Island is larger than any of the Bass Islands, 

 from the nearest of which it is 6 miles distant, and has a population of 

 from 1,200 to 1,500. The first settler was a French trader named Cun- 

 ningham, who came here in 1808, from which time until 1840 it was 

 known as Cunningham's Island. Few other settlers arrived until after 

 1825. The people are intelligent, thrifty, and prosperous, and are en- 

 gaged chiefly in grape-growing, fishing, and stone-quarrying, The 

 German element predominates. There is ample steam-boat connectiQfl 

 with Sandusky, Detroit, aud Cleveland 



