FISHERIES OF LAKE ONTARIO. 
183 
trap nets and fyke nets, while the quantity and value of gill nets have been reduced. 
Compared with 1885, the diminution in the amount of investment has been $12,216, 
made up chiefly of pound nets, shore property, and cash capital. 
The most interesting comparison, however, is that which shows the past and pres- 
ent catch of the different species, a subject which is of the utmost importance at this 
time, in that the figures must serve as a basis for determining the result of artificial 
propagation, which it is hoped will soon be undertaken on a large scale. 
It will probably occasion some surprise to state that the aggregate yield of the 
fisheries of Lake Ontario in 1890 was but little less than in 1880, the decrease in 
quantity of fish amounting to only 5.32 per cent, and in the value of catch only 2.19 
per cent; when it is considered, however, that a more unfavorable general showing 
has been prevented only by the capture of larger quantities of the cheaper grades of 
fish, and that the output of the two most valuable species in 1880 has been reduced 
88.38 per cent, the matter assumes a different phase. In the following table the 
catch of whitefish, trout, sturgeon, herring, and other species in 1880 and 1890 is 
shown, together with the increase or decrease and the percentage of increase or de- 
crease. The aggregate value of the output each year, the reduction in the value, and 
the percentage of decline are also given. 
Comparative table showing the ou tput of the fisheries of Lake Ontario in 1880 and 1890. 
Species. 
Increase or decrease. | 
1890. 
Quantity. 
Percentage. 
Whitefish 
Pounds. 
1, 064, 000 
Pounds. 
148, 771 
Pounds. 
— 915,229 
— 86. 02 
Trout 
569, 700 
41, 010 
— 528,690 
— 92. 80 
Sturgeon 
545, 283 
541, 752 
— 3, 531 
— .65 
Herring 
611, 217 
598, 978 
— 12, 239 
— 2.00 
All others 
849, 800 
2, 115, 937 
-+1, 266, 137 
+147. 11 
Total 
3, 640, 000 
3, 446, 448 
- 193,552 
— 5.32 
| Total value 
$159, 700 
$124, 786 
— $34, 913 
— 2.19 
THE CANADIAN IMPORT TRADE. 
A discussion of the fisheries of Lake Ontario would be incomplete without some 
allusion to the extent of the international trade depending on the prosecution of the 
industry on the Canadian side of the lake. The province of Ontario occupies the 
entire northern and a portion of the southern shores of the lake, and the fisheries 
therein are more or less dependent for their successful maintenance on the markets of 
the United States; on the other hand, consumers of fish in many parts of New York 
are, to a considerable extent, dependent for their supply on the Canadian fisheries. 
During the first three quarters of the year 1890 fresh fish were admitted into 
United States ports free of duty, but on October 1 of that year the new tariff went into 
effect, which provides that only those fish caught in apparatus belonging to citizens 
of the United States are entitled to free entry. Persons importing fish free of duty 
are now required to make the following oath : 
I, , residing at , a citizen of the United States, do solemnly swear that 
all of the fish imported by me in the [name of vessel!] from [name of foreign port] on the day of 
, 18 — , viz, pounds, are fresh fish (not salmon), and that they were caught in fresh water 
by nets and other devices which are owned by citizens of the United States. 
