GROWTH OF LAKE WHITE-FISH. 509 



On the same point Mr. Clark, writing to Professor Baird in March, 1872, says: "In June, 

 1868, I made a sweep with a seine, eighteen miles from the outlet of Lake Huron, on the shore of 

 the lake, and caught at one sweep fish from three or four inches to twenty inches in length. Some 

 of the largest fish weighed fifteen pounds. I concluded that they would increase in weight from 

 three-fourths of a pound to a pound each year, which would require ten or fifteen years for the 

 fish to get its growth. . . . He [speaking of Mr. Wilmot of the Wilmot Fishery Company at 

 Ne\ijL-astle, Ontario, Canada] has some White-fish two and a half years old last November, from 

 .sonic eggs which he procured here. The largest would weigh one and a half pounds. From this 

 we judge the fish will gain in weight from one half to three-quarters of a pound each year." 



MIGRATIONS. Relative to the movements of the White-fish in Lake Superior, Mr. George 

 Barnston is of the opinion that the young and immature White-fish confine their range entirely to 

 shallow waters near the shore. The pound nets, set in twenty to forty-five feet of water, catch 

 great numbers of small fish seven or eight inches long and weighing only a few ounces. The 

 gill-nets, usually employed in water not less than seventy to ninety feet deep, capture very few 

 of these small White-fish. In a tour of Lake Michigan not one case of such small fish being 

 captured in a gill-net scarcely any under one pound occurred. Again, a pound-net set on a 

 thirty-six-foot shoal, six miles from land, at Bay de Noquet, contained only Nos. 1 and 2 fish. It 

 might be urged that the small fish escape through the meshes of the gill-net ; yet it is more than 

 likely that occasional ones, entangled about the body and fins, would be taken, 'it being conceded 

 that the head of the White-fish is to a slight extent better guarded against entanglement in the 

 mesh than that of its congeners, the Lake Herring and the Cisco. Again, it is a significant fact 

 that no young White-fish are found in the stomachs of the Lake Trout. The range of the Trout in 

 summer is in deep water, and, if the young White-fish were there also, the Trout would surely feed 

 on them. The conclusion of Mr. George Barnston, then, is that White-fish do not migrate at all 

 into deep water until they have attained a weight of one and one-fourth pounds. He also corrobo- 

 rates Major Long's statement, that White-fish ascend Michipicoten River, Lake Superior, to spawn ; 

 " but," he says, "they cannot and do not run up far, for very high falls and long sweeps of raging 

 rapids obstruct their course in both the main river and its tributary, not far from the Great Lake. 

 Half a mile above the station I have assisted in seining White-fish at the spawning season, and 

 succeeded occasionally in making a good haul. These fish must have come from the bay or lake, 

 for they could never have descended the falls in safety, and the native fishermen (in all such cases 

 good judges) consider them lake fish." 



The line of migration followed by this fish in Lake Michigan is unerring and sure, and it is 

 more apparent at the south end of Lake Michigan than at any other point on the lake; in the spring 

 they always come down the east shore, and in the fall the west shore. About Point au Sable the 

 runs begin in June and finish by the end of July, commencing again in September and continuing 

 more or less throughout the winter. 



During the last six years the White-fish are supposed to have changed their route of migration 

 in the vicinity of Ver million, Lake Erie. The spring run here comes in May and the fall run in 

 October. The runs of the White-fish by no means occur simultaneously at all fishing points on 

 Lake Erie, for the fishermen, at different points, are fishing for them as soon as the ice disappears in 

 the spring, and continue until the ice comes again. The height of the runs may generally be con- 

 sidered as occurring during May and the fore part of June. Thence on until the end of July may 

 be called the slack time, after which the fishing again becomes good, and continues to be so until 

 the end of September. 



In the spring the fish work from the west end of the lake and hunt for a certain depth of 



