FISHERIES OF THE GREAT LAKES IN 1885. 271 



91. VERMILLION, ERIE COUNTY, OHIO. 



The town. — The only place in Erie County east of Huron where any 

 fisheries are carried on is Vermillion, 10 miles distant, near the bound- 

 ary line of Lorain County. Two railroads pass through the town ; and 

 Vermillion River, at the mouth of which it is situated, furnishes a good 

 harbor, so that it has some lake commerce. The population in 1885 

 was 1,200, and the fisheries were the most important industry. 



The fisheries. — Twenty-three pound-nets are owned by Vermillion 

 firms and set in seven strings, all within 5 miles of the county line. A 

 score of men fish for catfish, with set-lines, working in separate boats 

 aud having about a thousand hooks each. Three steamers and three 

 boats' crews fish for saugers in early spriug, with gill-nets, the steamers 

 with one hundred and fifty or two hundred nets each, and the small 

 boats with from ten to fifty nets. One of the steamers also goes to the 

 Bass Islands in the late fall to fish with gill-nets for whitefish, and 

 two additional sail-boat crews, of two men each, engage in the same 

 fishery. The nets used are 5 feet deep and 10 to 18 rods long, averag- 

 ing 15 rods. 



Trade. — There are three firms of fish dealers at Vermillion, by whom 

 all the pound-nets are owned. All of them salt considerable quantities 

 of fish, principally herring j and one of them has the only freezing 

 establishment in the town. There is, also, a cooper-shop, where are 

 manufactured 2,000 whole barrels and 500 half-barrels per annum. A 

 building costing $500 is used for this purpose, and one man is kept reg- 

 ularly employed. The greater portion of the yield of the fisheries of 

 this town is sold to the three dealers, by whom it is shipped directly to 

 the retail trade in different parts of the country. 



Statistics. — The number of fishermen at Vermillion in 1885 was 61 ; 

 of men employed in handling and preparing fish, 15 ; aud of persons de- 

 pendent upon these for their support, about 160. Besides the steamers 

 aud gill-net boats there were 4 scows, 4 pound-net sail-boats, and 30 

 small row-boats, the total value of the vessels and boats amounting to 

 $9,385. Seven hundred and eighty-five gill-nets, 23 pound-nets, and 

 20,000 set-line hooks constituted the apparatus of capture, with a value 

 of $14,820. The working capital of the dealers was $4,500 ; that in- 

 vested in wharves and buildings $8,935, and that in fixtures and acces- 

 sories $1,410. There were caught 640,000 pounds of herring, 212,000 

 pounds of saugers, 177,000 pounds of blue pike, 43,300 pounds of white- 

 fish, 34,500 pounds of sturgeon, 51,000 pounds of catfish, 30,000 pounds 

 of perch, 14,800 pounds of bass, wall-eyed pike, grass pike, and inus- 

 kellunge, aud 23,000 pounds of miscellaneous fish, mostly the little- 

 esteemed varieties called " trash." The total quantity was 1,225,600 

 pounds, with a value to the fishermen of about $23,000. 



