182 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
The fisheries on the Canadian shores of Lake Ontario which are controlled by 
dealers on the southern shores of that lake gave employment to 92 fishermen in 1891 ; 
the value of the boats, apparatus, etc., used was $8,860 ; and the products were as 
given in the chapter on imports. 
In Jefferson County the fishermen selling to local dealers received the following 
prices for their fish in 1890 and 1891. The figures do not differ materially from those 
obtained in other regions, and may be taken as a general average for the entire lake. 
The average prices paid by dealers are somewhat less than those received by the 
American fishermen, for the reason that the Canadian fish bring rather lower prices 
than those taken in home waters, the output being controlled by the dealers. 
Average wholesale prices per pound received by the fishermen of Jefferson County, New York. 
Species. 
1890 . 
! 1891 . 
Wall-eyed pike (of pike perch) 
Black bass 
Cents. 
10 
10 
1 Cents. 
1 
Whitefisli * .... 
6 i 
6* 
6 
1 6 
Sturgeon t 
5 
Muskellunge 
5 
Pike (or pickerel) - . . . 
4 
4 
Bullheads and catfish t 
4 
4 
Eels . . 
4 
Ciscoes 
3 
Perch 
1 
Suckers 
1 
Sheepshead. .... 
1 
White bass 
1 
* The prices given were for dressed fish, which represent about three-fourths the original weight, 
t The prices given were for dressed fish, which represent about two-thirds the round weigh,t. 
One of the most valuable uses of statistics is the opportunity they afford for 
noting comparisons between different years, and recourse to this advantage is nowhere 
more important and necessary than in the fisheries, especially in cases in which it 
becomes desirable to gauge accurately the effects of fish-culture. 
Comparing the present and past extent of the fisheries of Lake Ontario, it is seen, 
in the first place, that since 1880 the decrease in the number of persons employed in 
the fisheries has been 223, and since 1885, which was probably the most prosperous 
year during the decade, the decrease has been 211. 
The amount of capital devoted to fishing appears to have increased considerably 
since 1880, although there has been a decline in this respect since 1885. The princi- 
pal factor in the increase is the shore property and working capital, which in 1880 
amounted to only $5,000, and in 1890 to $38,667 ; the latter sum represents chiefly the 
wholesale handling of fish by firms on the lake shore, a business which is so intimately 
connected with actual fishing that it has been included in the foregoing tables. The 
investment in steam and sail vessels and boats is also much larger than in 1880, the 
increase being $19,062 and being due to the employment of more boats, required by the 
prosecution of fisheries of a more varying character than was demanded in 1880, when 
the most important species were abundant; there has also been an improvement in 
the type of steamers used in the fisheries. The apparatus employed in 1890 was worth 
$7,756 more than in 1880, an increase due entirely to the use of greater quantities of 
