FISHERIES OF THE GREAT LAKES IN 1885. 269 



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4 seine-boats, 54 scows, and 243 small row-boats, with a combined value 

 of $20,932. The amount and value of the apparatus of capture were as 

 follows: 5,059 gill-nets for whiteflsh and trout, worth $ 15,598 ; 336 other 

 gill-nets, $1,428; 359 pouud-nets, $144,870 ; 5 seines, $875 ; 100 traps or 

 "baby pounds," $7,500; 893 fyke-nets, $57,830; 70 set-lines, with 47,500 

 hooks, $715; besides hand-lines and spears to the value of about $75. 

 The cash capital of the dealers amounted to $138,000, that invested in 

 wharves and buildiugs, $183,475, and that in fixtures and accessories, 

 including fish-cars, $33,218. 



The products consisted of 2,155,000 pounds of saugers, 8,400,000 

 pounds of herring, 1,100,000 pounds of catfish, 565,000 pounds of white- 

 fish, 508,500 pounds of wall-eyed pike, 450,000 pounds of black bass, 

 265,400 pounds of blue pike, 190,000 pounds of sturgeon, 155,000 pounds 

 of grass pike and muskelluuge, and 1,375,000 pounds of other species, 

 mostly perch, sunfish, rock-bass, suckers, red-horse, and mullet. The 

 total value of these products, at the prices received by the fishermen, 

 was $234,800, the total weight amounting to 15,163,900 pounds. 



90. HURON, ERIE COUNTY, OHIO. 



General. — Huron, the first fishing center east of Sandusky, is situated 

 on the Huron River, which affords a fine harbor with sufficient depth of 

 water to admit the largest lake craft. In 1885 it had about 1,200 in- 

 habitants, the greater part of whom were dependent directly or indi- 

 rectly on the fisheries. 



Pound-net fishery, — Pound-nets were set here very soon after their 

 introduction into Lake Erie, and the fishing is still principally with this 

 form of apparatus. Between Cedar Point at the mouth of Sandusky 

 Bay and at Vermillion, a distance of 18 miles, there were fished in 1885 

 about 190 pound-nets. Some of these were owned at Sandusky and 

 Vermillion, but one hundred and eleven belonged to Huron firms. The 

 Huron fishermen set their nets in strings of eight to twenty-two, several 

 different fishermen having nets in the same string. The depth of the 

 water in which the bowls of the pound-nets are set varies from 20 to 

 45 feet, averaging 35 feet. 



The pound-nets are operated both in spring and fall. The fall run of 

 whiteflsh is short on this shore, the good fishing lasting but a few days 

 while they are passing up to the spawning grounds. The nets are all 

 taken up before the beginning of the return run, which takes place in 

 early winter. 



Other fisheries, — A few gill-nets were fished at this place for saugers 

 in 1884, for the first time, and since then several crews have engaged in 

 this fishery each spring. There is also some cat-fish-fishing with set- 

 lines. 



Trade. — The pound-net fisheries are entirely in the hands of 8 firms, 

 who have from three to thirty-five nets each, Seven, of these are dealers. 



