284 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



devoid of commercial fisheries. Numbers of anglers from Erie fish for 

 black bass from Harbor Creek, 8 miles distant. Freeport, a few miles 

 further east, situated on the lake shore, was once a famous fishing place, 

 but no fishing of any consequence has been done there since 1881, 

 though several hundred pleasure fishermen from North East and other 

 places go there at odd times to angle for bass, perch, and pike. 



Statistics of fisheries. — The fishing interests of Erie County gave em- 

 ployment in 1885 to 225 professional and 33 semi-professional fishermen, 

 49 preparators, and 3 mechanics, upon whom about 600 people were 

 directly dependent. The floating property consisted of 19 steamers, 

 45 gill-net boats, 6 scows, 6 pound-net boats, 1 seine boat, and 35 small 

 row boats, the whole having a value of $66,240. The number of gill- 

 nets was 10,700, worth $34,542 ; two-thirds of which were for whitefish 

 and trout, and the rest for blue pike and herring. There were 25 pound, 

 nets, worth $10,800, and also a seine, several fykes, and a number of 

 set-lines, having a combined value of a little over $1,000. Twenty- 

 seven thousand one hundred dollars were invested in wharves and 

 buildings, and nearly $12,500 in fixtures and accessories, including fish- 

 cars, the additional cash capital being $27,000. 



The products of the fisheries amounted to 10,313,500 pounds, whose 

 value, at the rates paid by the dealers to the fishermen, would amount 

 to nearly $240,000. 



Statistics of fish handled by dealers. — The dealers handled about 

 10,600,000 pounds, of which about 82 per cent, were sold fresh, 8 per 

 cent, were frozen, 6 per cent, were salted, and 4 per cent, were smoked. 

 More than two-thirds of the fresh fish were herring and blue pike, the 

 latter predominating: over 2,000,000 pounds were whitefish, and the 

 rest were perch, wall-eyed pike, trout, catfish, bass, mullet, and half a 

 dozen other kinds caught only in small numbers. Whitefish constituted 

 nearly 30 per cent, of the frozen fish and 17 per cent, of the salt fish. Of 

 the rest of the frozen fish nearly half were blue pike, and the rest were 

 trout and herring, the latter in greater quantities. There were salted 

 140,000 pounds of herring, and 100,000 pounds of blue pike. Ninety- 

 seven thousand five hundred pounds of caviare, with a value of nearly 

 $10,000, were prepared. 



95. CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, NEW YORK, WEST OF DUNKIRK. 



Nature of coast. — The section of coast between Dunkirk and the State 

 of Pennsylvania is about 28 miles in length. It is rocky in the extreme 

 and is broken in places by high ledges jutting out into the lake. 



Fisheries of Barcelona. — The most important fishing community in this 

 region is Barcelona, situated at the mouth of Chautauqua Creek. Its 

 fishery interests Mere much more developed at one time than they were 

 in 1885, and in past years it has been a very famous place for fisher- 

 men. Its inhabitants now are mostly farmers. A few people from in- 



