Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-29

swim against the leaders, and, unable to
mass the obstruction, work along it till the
heart is reached, and thence through the IA
foot funnel into the pot Once there they
rarely escape, and all the fishermen need to
do is TO lift the bowl or pot sufficiently to
dip out the fish with scoop nets. 1t is ad-
mirably adapted for shallow water, but is
rarely set where the depth exceeds 10 feet
Thirty wears ago almost fabulous catches
were made with these nets in the western
end OF Lake Erie and particularly in the
vicinity of the Bass Islands, where hundreds
OF miles of them are now in use every sea-
son. -Four tons of whitefsh were taken in q
single pound, and herring in the early days
of the war were often so plentiful that they
could be bought at the islands for 25 cents
per hundred weig 1t. Even yet these nets
are very successful and much more than
half the catch OF Erie is taken in them. In
1885 II tons of herring were caught in seven
nets, and last fall in a single week over
!, 800 tons of fish were marketed in Sandusky,
O, which handles more fresh fish annually
than New York City or Gloucester, Mass,
and proudly claims to be the greatest fish
mart in America, if not in the world.
Catching Fish by Their Gins.
In the pound net the fish are rarely caught
in the meshes, while in the gill net the de-
sign is, as the name suggests, to take them
by the gills. The meshes permit entrance
as far as the gills, and thus hold the victim
prisoner. IT the net is not lifted within a
few hours the fish are likely to drown and
become worthless The ponnd, however,
permits the fish TO be taken as uniniured,
usually, as if captured in seine. For this
rsason pound-caught fish usually command
a slightly better price than those taken in
gill nets The gill net is used in deep water.
The lives of the lake fishermen are not
easy ones, though the hardships grow less
as steam tugs supersede the old sail boats
for visiting the nets. Oilskins sheeted with
ice, numb fingers cut and bleeding from
drawing in the freezing nets, and faces
frost-bitten by icy spray, are common e1-
perienees, while often the gales drive the
nets far out of position and not infrequently
tangle them with others almost inextricably
One storm last fail destroyed $50, 900 worth
of nets for the Erie, Pa. fishermen in this
way. Yet 10, 600 hardy men earn a liveli-
hood along the lakes BY this means every
wear, and rarely is a life lost. Nearly q
score of steam tugs now do business from
this port, over 80 from Erie, Pa, and many
from Sandusky, where few years ago there
were scarcely more than q score on the
whole lake, sail boats being used. Every
where down the lakes the same change is
going on.
1t was $50 on a foggy May morning when
we started The steam fog-horn was bel
lowing in half-minute intervals. The sky
was clearing, and as we steamed briskly
down the river the soft sound wind gave
promise of warm and pleasant day The
fog was beginning to shift and scatter, but
once on the lake it still shut the horizon
down close about us by many colored cur
tains. Eastward under the laws of the sun
il hung the air with wells of silvery gossa-
mer, or fled along the surface like the great
moist breath OF living creature, while in
the west, near at hand, bank of states and
grays Law impenetrably dense upon tounda-
tions of violet and rose. Against that back
ground circled the silver wings of gulls.
The wind drove the column of black
smoke that beIched from the stack of the
tug over the port bow and spread it fan
shaped mingling with the drab of log and
cloud. Beneath that black canopy the
water rippled in wakes of green and blue,
black and rose, as tie smoke in varying de-
grees retracted the sunlight. The sunshine
frightened, and from the east a great reach
of silver looked up into the ewes of the be-
holder, and dazzled and bewitched, while
bushes of lavender, rose, and violet crept
up from the water into the dissolving bank
OF fog in the west.
The captain was studying tug that far
ahead threw banner of steam across our
course, but paused as we passed slender
cane lifting an abbreviated banner six or
eight feet above a small cedar buoy, to
point to it as marking the first gang of gill
nets, four miles out Of Cleveland. Mean