276 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



This trade represents a capital of over $80,000, giving employment 

 to between sixty and seventy people. 



There are about a dozen retail fish-houses in Cleveland which handle 

 the products both of lake and ocean fisheries. Three or four of them are 

 large concerns that buy most of their lake supplies directly from the 

 fishermen, but the others secure their supply from the wholesale deal- 

 ers. Probably $40,000 is not too high an estimate for the portion of 

 their capital which represents lake interests. This amount is of course 

 not included in the above statistics, which are meant to cover only the 

 strictly wholesale business. 



Combined statistics of Lorain and Cuyahoga Counties. — There were in 

 1885 in Lorain and Cuyahoga Counties 137 professional and 45 semi- 

 professional fishermen, representing, with the 70 persons employed by 

 the wholesale fish business, a directly dependent population of 400. 

 Five steamers, 5 gill-uet boats, 29 pound-net boats, 17 scows for driving 

 and pulling pound-net stakes, and 25 small row-boats were used, having 

 a total value of considerably over $30,000. The number of gill-nets 

 was 1,624, worth $5,000, and of pound-nets 108, valued at $43,300. The 

 fykes and set-lines had a value of $500. Over $70,000 were iuvested in 

 wharves and buildings, and $12,500 in fixtures and accessories, includ- 

 ing fish-cars. The additional cash capital amounted to $23,000. The 

 products were 5,059,000 pounds of fresh fish, with a value to the fish- 

 ermen of $53,200, and 946,000 pounds of salt fish, valued at $13,250. 

 Nearly four fifths of the fresh fish were herring and blue pike, 122,000 

 pounds were whitefish, and more than a third of the rest saugers ; the 

 balance consisting of perch, catfish, sturgeon, wall-eyed pike, grass 

 pike, bass, and several inferior varieties. The salt fish were nearly 

 three-quarters herring and the remainder blue pike. 



93. LAKE AND ASHTABULA COUNTIES, OHIO. 



Enumeration of fishing stations. — The shores of the two eastern coun- 

 ties of Ohio are very even, without important indentations, and the only 

 harbors are formed by the mouths of the Chagrin, Grand, Ashtabula, 

 and Conneaut Rivers. The fisheries are carried on from the four towns 

 located on these streams, namely, Willoughby, Fairport, Ashtabula, 

 and Conneaut. 



At Euclid, 12 miles east of Cleveland and 8 miles west of Willoughby, I 

 there is a string of pound-nets numbering three in spring and four in 

 fall; but these are owned by a Cleveland firm and included in the sta- 

 tistics for Cuyahoga County. 



Fisheries of Chagrin River. — The Chagrin River has not a sufficient 

 depth of water to allow the entrance of vessels, but it forms a good 

 harbor for fish boats. The town of Willoughby, with 1,200 inhabitants, 

 is situated 3 miles from its mouth. Three pound-nets at this place are 

 operated in the spring and four in the fall, on the lake shore just west 

 of the mouth of the stream. 



