MILNEK FISHEKIES OF THE GREAT LAKES. 39 



observatioQ wliere it was so. During 1871 no opportunities were 

 omitted to observe the stoinacli-coutents of the trout, when the^^ were 

 sufficiently undigested to determine the species, and often, when, to con- 

 firm the repeated assertions, a fisherman would throw out the contents 

 of a stomach, to show me the young white-fish, the head and mouth in- 

 variably indicated the genus Argyrosomus xlgass., and he would readily 

 admit his mistake. 



Questioning fishermen closely, who asserted that they found the young 

 white-fish to be the principal food of the trout, they generally assented 

 that they had not given close enough attention to decide positively 

 between young white-fish and the cisco, though manj?^ gave testimony of 

 finding unmistakable white-fish, of mature size, in the stomachs of the 

 overgrown trout taken in portions of the lakes. 



Stragglers into the shoal waters, and the trout migrating into shallow 

 places, to find their spawning-grounds, would undoubtedly prey upon 

 the smaller white-fish as readily as they would upon any other species ; 

 but during the larger part of the year they make their home in deejier 

 water than the young fish are found in. 



'An instance was related, in 1871, of a large trout having swallowed a 

 smaller one, which the fisherman removed from its stomach in a good 

 state of preservation. 



It is not an unusual thing for a trout to swallow a fish too large for 

 the capacity of his stomach, and the tail protrudes from his mouth until 

 the forward part is digested. A trout measuring twenty-three and one- 

 half inches was brought ashore at Two Elvers, Wisconsin, from the 

 mouth of which some three inches of the tail of a fish, Lota maculosa, 

 projected. The " lawyer," when taken from the trout, measured four- 

 teen inches without the head, which had been digested. 



Their exceeding voracity induces them to fill their maws with 

 singular articles of food in the bill of fare of a fish. Where the steam- 

 ers or vessels pass, the refuse from the table is eagerly seized upon, and 

 I have taken from the stomach a raw peeled potato and a piece of sliced 

 liver, and it is not unusual to find pieces of corn-cobs, in the green-corn 

 season, and in one instance I heard of a fragment^ of a ham-bone. 



They are readily taken with a hook baited with pieces of fish. They 

 are a sluggisli fish to pull in, taking hold of the bait with a tug at the 

 line and then allowing themselves to be pulled to the surface, with no 

 more vibration in the line than if a heavy sinker was the weight at the 

 end. Parties going out ^vith the fishermen often take a large number 

 while the nets are being lifted, and in some localities the largest of the 

 trout are taken in this way. While becalmed near Summer Island, i i 

 Lake Michigan, in 1871, two of us, in about one hour's time, took in fifty 

 pounds of trout, in seventeen fathoms of water. 



The explanation that the red color of the flesh of certain species of 

 this family is attributable to the red i)igments of crustaceans, which 

 form a principal article of food, is very directly contradicted in the ex- 



