II.-MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE 

 TO THE WHITE-FISH. 



A— THE WHITE-FISH OF THE GREAT LAKES. 

 1. — LAKE SUPERIOR. • 



Montreal, Xovemher 2, 1S72. 

 Dear Sir: Touching the white-fish sent by me to the Smithsonian 

 from Michipicoten, so long a time has elapsed since then that I cannot 

 recall the particular circumstances. This I remember, however, that 

 in Michipicoten Bay itself there is no great disparity in the size of 

 the Coregonl. The produce of our own seines and nets I always re- 

 garded as composed of but one species of white-fish, and the same as 

 that caught everywhere in the lakes and rivers of the North; but in 

 spring we sometimes had sent to us from a small ontpost at Bachewaino 

 Bay a fish or two, longer than our own and much thicker and heavier. 

 Without having entered into any careful examination, I used frequently 

 to declare my opinion that they might be, possibly, a distinct species. 

 It is very possible that a skin of one of these Bachewaino fish might 

 have been forwarded by me to the Smithsonian, with other subjects of 

 natural history. They are found iu Bachewaino Bay, and I am told 

 also, by a gentleman who was long a resident on the north shore, that 

 Pancake Point, farther eastward, is a famous locality for their catch. I 

 never had an opportunity of submitting these white-fish to a close com- 

 parison with the large specimens taken at the Sault Ste. Marie, 

 below the rapids, but I conjecture they might be of the same species. 

 In this ])articular, however, I might have easily fallen into mistake. 

 For the table, these are a drier fish than the smaller common white-fish, 

 and they occur in far less numbers iu the places to which they resort. 

 Occasionally a very large white-fish is taken about Fort William, no 

 others approaching it in size, and they are looked upon as overfed mon- 

 strosities by the people at the posts. At l!forway House, north end of 

 Lake Wiunepeg, where I resided many years, I was in the custom of 

 sending a fisherman, late in the fishing season, in October, to the nar- 

 rows of a river twenty miles distant, to obtain a larger and finer fish 

 than what were to be had at the place. The reason for sending was, 

 of course, the fish being larger, and equal in quality for food to those 

 caught nearer. Still, upon inquiry I could never get the natives to say 

 that it was of a different kind. They seemed to think the difierence in 

 size arose from the greater abundance or better quality of their food. 



