THE FOOD AND GAME FISHES OF NEW YORK. 315 



were caught, more than 2,000,000 of this amount by fishermen from Erie alone. In 

 that year Erie County had 310 persons employed in the fisheries. The capital 

 invested in the business was nearly $250,000. The wholesale value of the fish 

 products was upward of $400,000. The Whitefish was the third species in relative 

 importance, Blue Pike ranking first, and the Lake Herring second. In Erie County 

 Whitefish are caught chiefly in July, August and November, and the bulk of them 

 are taken in gill nets. Pound nets are also employed in the capture of Whitefish. 



Carl Miller of New York and Henry Brown of New Haven are credited with the 

 first attempt to propagate the Whitefish artificially. Their experiments were made 

 in Lake Saltonstall, near the city of New Haven. The result of the experiments, 

 which were repeated in 1858, is not known. In 1868, Seth Green and Samuel 

 Wilmot began a series of experiments in the same direction, and in 1869, N. W. 

 Clark of Clarkson, Mich., took up the same work. In 1870 a half million eggs were 

 placed in hatching boxes by Mr. Clark. In 1872, through the aid of the U. S. Fish 

 Commission, Mr. Clark's hatching house was doubled in capacity, and a million 

 eggs were taken from Lake Michigan. Since that time both the National and 

 State Governments have made the Whitefish the object of their most extensive 

 operations. 



Dr. Meek saw no specimens of Whitefish from Cayuga Lake, but he thinks it is 

 an inhabitant. The U. S. Fish Commission obtained a specimen at Cape Vincent, 

 N. Y., November 17, 1891. 



A young individual was received from Wilson, Niagara County, N. Y., caught in 

 a gill net in Lake Ontario and sent by James Annin, Jr. 



A male and female were received through James Annin, Jr., from Upper Saranac 

 Lake, November 16, 1895. Both fish were nearly spent. A male from Chazy Lake 

 arrived through the same source November 22, 1895. It was doubtfully called 

 " Blackfin Whitefish." At that time the fish had left the spawning beds and were 

 in deep water. June 17, 1896, a female 19^5 inches long was shipped by Mr. Annin 

 from Canandaigua Lake. Its stomach is pear-shaped with walls more than ^ inch 

 thick ; it contained numerous small shells of several genera, not yet identified. 



The species is reported by fishermen to be very abundant in that lake, and to be 

 destructive to eggs of other fish. They say it comes in great numbers into shallow 

 water near the shore in early summer when the water is roily, and can be caught on 

 set lines. Mr. Annin saw men baiting their set lines with small minnows on Canan- 

 daigua Lake, and, when the lines were taken up in the morning, the Whitefish was 

 found on the hooks. It is said that one so taken weighed 6 pounds. Supt. O. H. 

 Daniels, of the New Hampshire Fish Commission, forwarded a specimen from Lake 

 Winnesquam, at Laconia, 19^ inches long, weighing 46 ounces, and he wrote that 



