510 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



water, remaining at their chosen spot until August, when they strike shorewards.- Off Erie, Lake 

 Erie, the water is shallow, and the fishermen are obliged to go out six to fifteen miles for White- 

 lish ; but oft 1 Dunkirk and Barcelona the water is deeper, and consequently shorter trips from land 

 will suffice for fishing. This tends to show that White-fish are lovers of deep water. 



In Lake Ontario, about Port Ontario, it is probable that the White-fish migrate from the Cana- 

 dian shore to the American shore regularly. In 1870 they were more plentilul on the American 

 shore ; ten years before that, again, the reverse was the case. In 1880, following the rule, they have 

 been scarce on the American shore, but will probably in a few years migrate again to this side of the 

 lake. At Kingston Harbor they occur regularly. They have been known to run twenty miles up 

 the river at this point; this is, however, unusual. Sometimes all the "Gray Backs" are found on 

 the Canadian shore just before the regular spring run of the White-fish comes on. They are 

 nowhere abundant on the American shore. 



Mr. Peter Kiel, fishery overseer, Lake Ontario, says that White-fish are canght in early spring 

 at a considerable distance from the shore in about two hundred feet of water, but about the 1st of 

 June they approach the shore, and are then caught in great numbers on their favorite feeding 

 grounds, a sort of honey-combed rock, in about thirty feet of water. About the 1st of August they 

 retreat hastily toward the deeper and cooler portions of the lake, where they are found in their best 

 condition. About the middle of October they again swim shoreward for the purpose of spawning, 

 arriving at the proper locality from the middle of November to the 1st of December, depending 

 upon the severity or mildness of the season, for they do not deposit their spawn until the water 

 has attained a temperature of about 40 F. After spawning they again retire to the deep water, 

 remaining there until the next spring. 



Mr. Milner has contributed the following facts regarding the movements of the White fish in the 

 Great Lakes. From his observations it will appear that the migration shoreward is dependent 

 upon the locality ; depth of water, temperature, etc., are points which must be taken into 

 consideration. Thus, in Lake Michigan, the summer migration into shoal water seems to be almost 

 universal, while in Lake Erie, where the temperature is high in summer, the shoreward summer 

 migration is unknown. 



"The assertion was sometimes made among the fishermen that the scarcity of White-fish at 

 any one locality was no reliable indication that the number had decreased, but that the schools 

 had probably migrated to some other region. 



"At Waukegau, Illinois, the White-fish come into shallow water in the greatest abundance in 

 the months of June and July. The same habit is observed in various localities on the lakes, 

 though by no means at all points. Several points on the shores of Lake Michigan, in the south 

 half of the lake, the vicinity of the Apostle Islands, Lake Superior, and at the Thunder Bay 

 Islands of Lake Huron, may be referred to as localities where the July migration occurs. George 

 Keith, esq., a factor of the Hudson Bay Company at Michipicoten, in 1840, affords Sir John 

 Richardson the same information upon the habits of a species of the Coregonus. It was for a long 

 time a difficult matter to discover the reason for this summer run on the shore, if indeed it has 

 been correctly accounted for. The contents of the stomach were found to be the same as at other 

 seasons of the year. It was not probable that the White-fish was an exception to all its congeners 

 of the salmonoid family, and preferred the warmer temperature of shallow water to the colder 

 waters outside. Besides, the schools of White-fish were always found to leave a region where wide 

 areas of shoal water existed as the heat of summer advanced. The theory adopted to account for 

 tnis summer visit to the shore was that the calm, quiet weather of the summer months, from the 

 slight disturbance of the surface, prevented the amount of aeration to the water that occurred at 



