310 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Fishermen. — Most of the people in the vicinity of these bodies of 

 water are farmers, who fish to some extent at certain seasons. North 

 Greece, a village of 250 people, about 6 miles from the lake, is the post- 

 office for the people near Braddock's Bay and the three western ponds, 

 while Mount Read is the post-office of those living in the vicinity of 

 Round Pond. 



Charlotte and its fisheries. — Charlotte is on the west bank of the Gen- 

 essee River, at its mouth, about 8 miles from Rochester. From each 

 side of the mouth of the river a pier extends three-quarters of a mile 

 into the lake. East of the town the shore is sandy, and it is here that 

 the fishermen haul their seines; to the west the beach is made up of 

 stones and gravel. Charlotte has about 1,000 inhabitants and is grow- 

 ing rapidly. It is a great place of summer resort — the Coney Island of 

 Rochester — and some very fine hotels and cottages were in course of 

 construction in the fall of 1885. The fishery interests are of compara- 

 tively little importance, and the business is carried on at the risk of 

 imprisonment and seizure of property. It is asserted that many tons 

 of fish could be taken here annually and that a flourishing industry 

 could be established, were it not for the law. 



A small Canadian vessel laden with fish for Rochester stops at Char- 

 lotte about once a week. 



Kinds offish taken. — The species caught in this section of the lake 

 are principally herring, bull-heads, bass, pickerel, whitefish, perch, sun- 

 fish, and eels. -Several fishermen expressed the belief that whitefish 

 were becoming more abundant. The average weight of the specimens 

 caught was about 6 pounds, although numbers of fish weighing 12 or 13 

 pounds were secured off Long Pond in 1885. 



Disposition of catch. — Most of the fishermen sell their fish to peddlers; 

 a few dispose of them directly to customers in the villages and towns 

 near the lake. The few fish salted are herring, for home consumption. 



Summary. — In 1885 there were 53 men engaged in fishing in this sec- 

 tion, of whom 26 were professional and 27 semi-professional fishermen. 

 The apparatus consisted of 42 boats; 75 whitefish and trout gill-nets, 

 16,420 feet in length; 152 herring gill-nets, 25,000 feet in length ; 11 

 seines, 4,830 feet in length ; 116 fyke-nets, and miscellaneous apparatus 

 and shore property, the total value of all of which was $3,995. 



The following was the catch in 1885 : 37,200 pounds of bullheads, 

 32,950 pounds of herring, 16,000 pounds of bass, 12,000 pounds of pick- 

 erel, 1,900 pounds of whitefish, and 15,200 pounds of mixed fish, such 

 as perch, eels, suckers, and sunfish. Five half-barrels or 500 pounds of 

 herring were salted. The total value of the catch was $6,700. 



106. IRONDEQUOIT BAY AND VICINITY, MONROE COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



The bay and its.surroundings. — Irondequoit Bay is 4 miles east of 

 Charlotte and 6 miles from Rochester. It extends due north and south, 

 and is 6 miles long and about a mile wide. The shores are high and 

 rocky, except at the northern end, where a narrow strip of sand sepa- 



