Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 73.djvu/369

Rh For nearly two decades after 1880 the animal yield of sturgeon products did not fall below eleven or twelve million pounds, but as season followed season the same areas were not contributing the same proportion of the total. The accompanying table shows the catch for the various districts in different years. In 1880 the Great Lakes,

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owing to the vast abundance of sturgeon in the shallow and warmer waters of Lakes Michigan and Erie, yielded more than three fifths of the total for the United States. Although complete statistics for the entire country are not available for any single year during the decade following 1880, there is ample reason for believing that the industry expanded and the products increased rapidly for several seasons. For example, the catch in the Lakes was only 410,000 pounds smaller in 1885 than it was in 1880, and in 1888 the chief coastal areas, the