Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1886-12-24

a height of three or four feet above the
surrounding water. Water-power is used
entirely for operating the lock and for
assisting sailing vessels through.
Some Indians came on board and gave
us an opportunity to shoot the rapids
with them in their canoes. Each canoe
carries only one person besides the Indian
who guides it. The passenger is expect
fold his arms, for if he seizes the sides of
the boat it is very likely to be upset.
The Indian sits in the stern and guides
the canoe with paddle. These Indians
have a strange way of fishing. As they
shoot swiftly down they hold a small
scoop net attached to a short pole in the
water and nearly every time they scoop
up several fish which were attempting to
ascend the rapids.
Passing out of the lock we enter Lake
superior. The first stopping-place in
this lake is White Fish Point. The scene
ry is not interesting, the point being low
and sandy. There are no churches. or
schoolhouses, or large buildings there of
any kind. The principal occupation of
the people is fishing. In the summer
great quantities of fish are caught by
pound nets. | counted twelve or fifteen
of them. A long net three feet wide is
stretched from near the shore to where
the water is quite deep. The net is held
at the bottom by lead attached to its
lower edge while it is held upright by
corks attached to its upper side. Poles
driven into the sand at intervals keep it
from being shifted by the currents. 4
fish swimming along a few inches from
the bottom, when he sees this net, will
not rise foot or two to go over it; and
no matter how near the upper end he
may be. he will not go iuto shallower
water to 90 around it. He follows it into
deeper water until he comes to the lower
end. There a large, heart-shapcd en-
closure is placed with an opening into it
at the end of the net. The fish enters it
to the position of the hole through which
it entered it is not likely to find its way
out through that again, but goes through
a hole into what is called the tunnel.
from its shape, being quite large at the
upper end and barely permitting the fish
to go through at the lower. The lower
end of the tunnel" opens into the "bag,''
an enclosure reaching to the surface of
the water, generally from sixty to eighty
feet. Here the tish's journey is ended
To get the fish caught in this way men
go out in boats to the bag once a day
and by pulling rope detach it from the
tunnel" Then they pull up the bag
and take out the fish. Sometimes they
get a double-wagon load at one haul
The small fish they throw away and
those that weigh more than Il pound and
half they send to Chicago. The stur
geons which go TO Chicago are smoked
and are then known as smoked sturgeon
Since smoked sturgeon greatly resembles
smoked halibut, when the price of hall
but is higher than that of sturgeon it i:
sold as halbut; when it is not. it is SOLD
as sturgeon. White fish are caught here
in great quantities and are highly es
teemed. Pound nets are used only il
summer and are quite expensive, costing
between two and three hundred dollars
For these reasons the poor people do moi
use that kind of nets, but have what are
called gill-nets, which are used both il
summer and winter. The husband gen
orally obtains money enough in som,
way to buy the twine for it and the wife
weaves it. although sometimes she doe.
fish cannot see it: the nets are a ware
wide and several yards long. When {
fish comes towards it he does not see il
and SwimS right into one of the meshes
The mcSheS are of such size that whel
fish gets its head and gills through h,
can neither keep on nor back out. Tn,
man who owns the net comes every
morning and takes the fish out. Gener
ally about half of them are dead. Aftel
throwing away what are not worth say
ing he takes the rest home. During tn,
rest of the day the wife prepares then
for market, while the man of the hous,
loafS around. In case the husband is o.
extraordinary Incidence, the wife doe,
all the work. In the winter they cut
hole through the ice and poke as mucl
of the net in with a stick as they can
Then they cut another hole and poke i
along farther and repeat this process,
until the whole of the net is in. Afte
that they allow all the holes to freeze W
but the first and last that they cut. \
rope is tied to the end of the net tina
goes in last. When they wish to taxi
out the fish they pull the net out of tn,
last hole that was cut. When the tiSl
have been taken out, it is pulled back in
to the water by means of the rope which
goes in at the last hole and out at tn,
| first one. Lake trout, which are so high