The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-08-22

Swims along beside it until he comes TO a
narrow opening at the end of passage
fenced in with nets. When he passes
through this opening he is doomed for he
is in the pound-an area, perhaps forty
feet square, entirely inclosed by nets Ev-
cry other day the pound net is raised,
and its captiVes are gated by rough fish
ermen and thrown into the wide fishing
boats, where they are dubbed to death.
Ordinarily there will be two thousand or
three thousand pounds of sturgeon in each
haul together with many whitetish trout
pike and pickerel Occasionally as many
a 5 eleven thousand pounds of iSh have
been taken in a single haul.
The sturgeon runs from sixty to two
hundred pounds in weight and is often six
or seven feet long. The female is the most
desirable on account of the roes or eggs,
which are made into caVilre. Formerly
no part OF the fish was used except the
eggs, and the entire body of the male and
all of the female except the eggs We're
thrown away and left to decay on the
shores unless the Indians happened along
to possess themselves OF the waste.
The Lake of the Woods fisheries COM
prise many companies and employ bout
two hundred and forty men. There are
several small Canadian companies and
three large American companies. The
American companies have pooled their in
terests. The business is so extensive that
ii demands the Investment of considerable
capital, the construction of ice and fish
houses along the shore OF the lake, and
the use of many tugs rowboats and sail
boats. The Canadian fisheries are under
the supervision of the dominion fisheries
department, while the Minnesota game
and fish commission regulates the fishing
in American waters. The Canadians have
an agent who lives at Rat Portage, and
who keeps the fisheries well under his
41,s ltt,7at hA
Der of nets and the distance between them
On the Canadian side the nets are gen
orally placed twenty-five hundred feet
apart The Minnesota law calls for inter
walls of fifteen hundred feet. A license 10
fish costs $50 on the Canadian side and
$40 on the American side. The best fish
cries on the American side are on the
shore of the northwest angle This an
gle is d little piece Of American soil which
is entirely inclosed by water or by Cana
dian land
For the last two years the fishing on the
Lake of the Woods has been very poor
partly on account OF the extraordinarily
high water, which has permitted the stur-
geon to find feeding grounds where there
were no nets and partly because the
numbers Of the big fish have undoubtedly
been greatly reduced by the wholesale
fishing Their only salvation lies in the
fact that the Minnesota commission re-
fuses to permit the use of nets on Rainy
river the principal feeder of Lake of the
Woods and the favorite fishing ground
and breeding place of the fish. Many fish
are caught in this river at the rapids
with the hook well under the water. The
sturgeon, pushing up the stream, keep
near the shore where the current is not
so swift, and poke their heads against the
gaff Then the Indian quickly pulls the
gaff into the under side of the fish and
lands him on the shore.
After the sturgeon are caught at the
fisheries they are picked up from the
small boat at the fishing stations and
taken in tugs to the headquarters of the
company, where the roe is removed from
the females, and the flesh is either smoked
or sent to the market on ice. Properly
cooked, the sturgeon steaks are very
toothsome while the smoked sturgeon is
often sold as smoked halibut. Minneapo-
lis is the principal market for the fish
sturgeon and other kinds-caught by the
American companies. They are then
quickly distributed TO Chicago, St. Louis
and Kansas City and other points. AS
the water of Lake of the Woods is very
cold the trout and whitehsh are quite
equal to those of Lake Superior.
The sturgeon eggs are taken to the fish
houses and put through a process which
separates them from other matter They
are then packed in 125-pound kegs, sailed
and shipped to Germany and Russia. The
roe from a single sturgeon is worth about
IS and weighs thirty or forty pounds
Through so much of the surgeons car
cass was wasted in the past it is all
saved now. The offal is made into ferti-
lizing material, and the fat is turned into
harness oil. All of these products are
shipped from Rat Portage, on the Cana
dian Pacific railroad, and frequently fill
three or four cars a week.
The eggs, after being shipped to Europe
and subjected to the caviare process, come
back to America in little tin cans with
foreign labels, and with no suggestion Of
Lake of the Woods 1t is said by some
that the caviare process is a secret. while
others say it is not. but that the industry
is an ancient one in Europe. and Ameri-
cans have found quite enough profit in
supplying the raw material THERE'S some
talk of establishing d Canadian caviare
factory at Rat Portage, but unless the
sturgeon are found in numbers in some
other lake there will be neither Russian
nor American caviare in the near future
Lake Of the Woods will soon be fished out.
so far as 1t concerns the sturgeon, though
IL is only few years since il was nshed
at all.
THE NIZHNI-NOVGOROD FAIR.