318 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



of 10 gill- net boats and 18 other boats ; 93 sturgeon gill-nets, 32,500 feet in 

 length ; 157 whitefish gill-nets, 57,905 feet in length ; 42 herring gill- 

 nets, 13,800 feet in length ; 9 trap-nets ; 1 seine, 1,650 feet in length ; 

 32 fyke-nets ; 34,500 feet of set-lines, with 2,300 hooks ; and miscella- 

 neous and shore property. The capital invested iu boats amounted to 

 $990 j in nets and seine, $1,430; in traps, fykes, and lines, $733 ; in 

 other apparatus, and wharves, etc., $1,935. The total value of the 

 fishing property was $5,088. 



The following figures show the number of pounds of each species 

 lauded iu 1885 : sturgeon, 24,065 ; bull-heads, 16,350 ; whitefish, 14,350; 

 eels, 4,350 ; suckers, 2,000 ; pike, 1,800 ; herring, 1,500 ; bass, 300. Four 

 hundred pounds of herring were salted. The total value of the catch 

 was $3,210. 



113. OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK, NORTH OF PORT ONTARIO. 



Fisheries of North Little Sandy Pond.—The sandy coast of Oswego 

 County, between Port Ontario and Jefferson County, extends in a 

 straight line for its entire length, a distance of 6J miles. All the fish- 

 ing along this shore is done in or off North Little Sandy Pond. This 

 pond or bay is 3.J miles long and 2 miles wide, the water off the shores 

 being from 7 to 18 fathoms deep. Communication with the lake is estab- 

 lished by means of a channel 50 feet wide and a few feet in depth, at 

 the southern end of the pond. About twenty-five gill-net, seine, set- 

 line, fyke, and trap-net fishermen live on or near this body of water, 

 and the place is also visited by people from Sandy Creek, a village of 

 1,100 inhabitants, 4 miles from the pond. Of late the locality has be- 

 come a somewhat popular resort for anglers, who make their headquar- 

 ters at the hotel at the mouth of the pond. A game club of Oswego 

 claims the pond as a hunting ground for ducks, etc., but fishing here has 

 not been stopped as yet. The extreme northern portion of the pond is 

 in Jefferson County and is fished by a man from Ellisburgb, whose 

 catch and apparatus will be included in the statistics ot that county. 



The narrow sand-strip which separates the pond from the lake is an 

 excellent seining ground,but it is not used, because the fishermen fear 

 that their seines will be seized. The fishing-grounds in the lake are 

 directly off the pond. 



Species. — Bull-heads are by far the most abundant species, spawning 

 iu immense numbers just at the mouth of the pond. Sturgeon are 

 caught in considerable quantities with gill-nets and set-lines. 



Whitefish are not plentiful, but are becoming more so. Bass, pike, 

 and perch are fairly common in the pond, and are mostly taken by 

 anglers. Eels, herring, and suckers complete the list. 



Sale offish. — Many of the fish are sold to peddlers ; some are sent to 

 New York, by way of Sandy ('reek ; while a fish-dealer at Chaumont 

 gets the largest number. The prices vary but little from those in ad- 

 jacent sections. 



