THE GRAYLINGS. 487 



matter, and covered with a forest of pines, generally the Norway pine, 

 Finns resinosa, Linn., growing in grand dimensions, the long, limbless 

 shafts making wide boards, free from knots, yet but little utilized, while 

 immense forests of the favorite lumber material, white pine, Pinus strobus, 

 are yet uncut. From this plateau arise several large streams and rivers, 

 flowing each way into Lakes Huron and Michigan. Among these are 

 three rivers of note, the Muskegon, the Manistee, emptying into Lake 

 Michigan, and the Ausable, entering into Lake Huron. Among the minor 

 streams are the Cheboygan, Thunder Bay, and Rifle, tributary to Lake 

 Huron, and the Jordan, empyting through Pine Lake into the Traverse 

 Bays of Lake Michigan. A few branches and streams, spring-fed, are 

 formed, in which the water has a uniform degree of coldness throughout 

 the summer, seldom rising above 52 . The rivers Rifle, Ausable, Jordan, 

 Mersey, branch of the Muskegon, and the headwaters of Manistee, all have 

 this character, and in all of these, and only in this limited locality, 

 short of the Yellowstone region, is found the already famous Michigan 

 Grayling." 



The town of Grayling, Mich., formerly called Crawford, is in the 

 midst of this district, and the headquarters of Grayling fishermen. The 

 Grayling is said to live also in Portage Lake, in the extreme northern part 

 of the State. These streams seem to be remarkably cold, being fed by 

 numerous springs. Milner found the Ausable to vary between 45 and 49 

 morning and evening, in September; and Mr. Fitzhugh has remarked that 

 the south branch of this river, which rises in a swampy lake, contains no 

 Grayling except near its mouth, where its volume is swelled by large springs, 

 and its water becomes clear and cold. 



The Grayling of Europe, Thymallus vulgaris, is also restricted to cold 

 streams, and appears to be found within limited areas. It is found in 

 Norway, Sweden, Lapland, and the Oreades, in Switzerland and Hungary, 

 and southward to lakes Constance and Leman, in Bavaria. A Grayling, 

 possibly of different species, occurs in Lake Maggiore, and others have 

 been recognized from Russia and Siberia. It is constantly being discov- 

 ered in new localities. In England the species was formerly known as 

 the " Umber." " And in this river be Umbers, otherwise called Grad- 

 ing*," wrote Holinshed, in "The Description of Britaine," A. D. 1577. 

 The German name, " Aesche," has been thought to refer, like "Grayling," 

 to its color. The European and American fishes are so similar that only 

 a trained ichthyologist can distinguish them, and their habits are very 

 much the same. Our Grayling spawns in April in the Ausable. that of 



