64 Salmonidae 



northwestward to the Yukon, abounding in cold deep waters, its 

 range apparently nowhere coinciding with that of C&regonus 

 williamsoni. 



The common whitefish (Coregonus clupeiformis] is the largest 

 in size of the species of Coregonus, and is unquestionably the 

 finest as an article of food. It varies considerably in appear- 

 ance with age and condition, but in general it is proportionately 

 much deeper than any of the other small-mouthed Coregoni. 

 The adult fishes develop a considerable fleshy hump at the 



FIG. 50. Whitefish, Coregonus clupeiformis Mitchill. Ecorse, Mich. 



shoulders, which causes the head, which is very small, to appear 

 disproportionately so. The whitefish spawns in November 

 and December, on rocky shoals in the Great Lakes. Its food 

 was ascertained by Dr. P. R. Hoy to consist chiefly of deep- 

 water crustaceans, with a few mollusks, and larvae of water 

 insects. "The whitefish," writes Mr. James W. Milner, "has 

 been known since the time of the earliest explorers as pre- 

 eminently a fine-flavored fish. In fact there are few table- 

 fishes its equal. To be appreciated in its fullest excellence it 

 should be taken fresh from the lake and broiled. Father Mar- 

 quette, Charlevoix, Sir John Richardson explorers who for 

 months at a time had to depend upon the whitefish for their 

 staple article of food bore testimony to the fact that they never 

 lost their relish for it, and deemed it a special excellence that 

 the appetite never became cloyed with it." The range of the 

 whitefish extends from the lakes of New York and New England 

 northward to the Arctic Circle. The "Otsego bass" of Otsego 



