6Q KEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Although a very general opinion prevails, in different parts of the 

 lakes, that the herring spawns earlier than the white-fish, the oppor- 

 tunities afforded for observation, this season, indicated otherwise. 



In Green Bay it was asserted that the herring came on to the shore 

 in masses about the 6th of November, and although they were found 

 in more or less abundance at all seasons of the year, there was a very 

 evident general movement at that time. The only positive evidence of 

 the fact of spawning is the emission of spawn by the fish when handled, 

 and the migrations of the schools and the mere fact that the spawn 

 are large does not determine the season of spawning. In regions 

 where fishing is not carried on late in the season, it is a very common 

 habit among the fishermen to conclude on some particular time during 

 the fishing as the spawning-period, basing the belief on migration or 

 appearance of the spawn, Miien, in reality, the fish do not spawn until 

 after the fishing-season closes. 



By November 25 of last year, the majority of white-fish in the west- 

 ern end of Lake Erie were found to have finished spawning. With 

 few exceptions the ovaries were emptied of their load of eggs ; the 

 abdomen was wrinkled and flaccid, and but few eggs were emitted 

 when thrown into the boats or on the fish-house floor. The lake-her- 

 rings at this time were found to be full of ripe eggs, which were voided 

 from the ovipore of females whenever the fish was moved, aiid even while 

 lying in heaps on the bottom of the boats or floors of the fish-houses. 

 Earlier than this, between the 1st of November and the 20th, examina- 

 tion of the ovaries on nearly every day had found, in the larger j^ropor- 

 tion, the ovaries hard and compact. 



The herring were taken at this time in their usual haunts, the pound- 

 nets capturing them in immense quantities, making it probable that 

 they do not change their locality in the spawning-season. What their 

 subsequent habits may be, would require observation later in the sea- 

 son than fishing is generally carried on, though the new custom of 

 allowing pound-nets to remain until the ice has covered the bays would 

 afford a favorable opportunity. If they remain upon the spawning- 

 grounds they would undoubtedly' be their own worst agent of destruc- 

 tion. 



In the winter of 1S71, in Green Bay, to the south of Escanaba, Mich., 

 it was discovered that the herring had congregated in large numbers in 

 an open space free from ice next to the shore where a number of springs 

 in the bank supplied a quantity of water of too high a temperature to 

 freeze readily. Minnows were found crowded in masses at the water's 

 edge, and using them for bait the herring were taken in large numbers, 

 and occasionally a white-fish from about twenty inches of water. 



All that is known of the time of hatching of the herring-ova is from 

 the experiments of Mr. Seth Green. 



. In the report of the commissioners of fisheries for the State of New 

 York foV the year 1871, it is stated that a quantity of the impregnated 



