THE GERMAN CARP IN THE UNITED STATES. 611 



is carried on to some extent throughout the entire jcnv, and some per- 

 sons devote their whole time to it, the bulk of the fishing, in the Lake 

 Erie region, comes in spring and summer, when the numlier of men 

 engaged is greatl}" augmented. Man}' of these persons are profes- 

 sional fishermen who at other seasons are engaged in catching other 

 kinds of fish; but many also are farmers, usually living in the vicinity 

 of the fishing grounds, who supplement the income of their farms in 

 this wa3^ For this reason it is very difficult to estimate the number 

 of men engaged in carp fishing, either for a part or for the whole of 

 their time. 



By far the greater number of carp marketed are taken in seines, 

 and the methods differ only in details from those empio3^ed in seining 

 generally. For this reason I shall give but a short description of the 

 methods employed, and shall confine my remarks to the fisheries along 

 Lake Erie and the adjacent waters. Apparentl}^ about the same 

 methods are employed by the Illinois fishermen. (See illustrations in 

 Illinois fish commissioner's report, 1900-1902.) 



Some of the fishermen, espeeiallv those who fish along the shores of 

 Lake Erie, make their headquarters in the cities where the wholesale 

 houses are situated, making trips of two or three days, or even a week 

 or more duration along the shores, and running back when they have 

 a load of fish. These trips are made usually in open, flat-bottomed 

 boats, of the style known on the lakes as "seine boats'" and "pound 

 boats." They are rigged as single or double "cats," but with the sail 

 extending bej^ond the gaff to form a sort of permanent topsail. 

 Others, and especially the farmers who fish for only a portion of the 

 year, usually have a permanent camp established near some of the 

 marshes. The fish when caught at these places are transferred at once 

 to live-cars if to be kept but a short time, or to artificial ponds if 

 they are to be kept longer, and are later sent to the wholesale houses 

 either in wagons or by boat. 



SEINING. 



The seines used in this fishing are commonly 40 to 50 rods in length, 

 about 18 feet deep in the middle and 10 feet deep at the ends. The 

 middle portion or bag is generally about 5 rods long and has a 3-inch 

 mesh, while the wings have a 4-inch mesh. Longer seines — to a length 

 of 80 rods — are sometimes used, but are usualh^ found to be too 

 inconvenient. The. cork-line is well supplied with floats to keep it up, 

 but there are usually no weights on the lead-line. The lead-line is 

 made shorter than the cork-line, however, so that it hauls somewhat 

 ahead of the latter and hugs the bottom. The seine boats commonly 

 used are open, flat-bottomed, centerboard boats about 20 to 30 feet 

 long, square at the stern, and fitted with a single mast (fig. 3, pi. ii). 

 The seine is loaded into the stern of the boat in such a way that it can 

 be paid off easily, and is taken to a ground where the fishermen have 



