80 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



I believe Major Long was correct iu saying tliat the white-fish run up 

 the Michipicoten Eiver to spawn, but they cannot and do not run up 

 far, for very high falls and long sweeps of raging rapids obstruct their 

 course in both the main river and its tributary-, not far from the Great 

 Lake. Half a mile above the station I have assisted in seining white- 

 fish at the spawning season, and succeeded occasionally in making a 

 good haul. These fish must have come from the bay or lake, for they 

 could never have descended the falls in safety, and the native fishermen 

 (in all such cases good judges) considered them lake-fish. 



Can you inform me whether you have ever received from the north 

 shore of Lake Superior any specimens of the "Mucqua trout" of the 

 natives? as, translated by me, the "bear trout," or Salmo ursinus. It 

 is still fatter than the siskowet, and can be melted, with little residue, 

 into oil. I have named it a distinct species, following the idea of 

 the Indians, and observing it to possess a different shape of body and 

 head entirely from the siskowet. It is found in small numbers through- 

 out the lake, along the north shore, but, like the siskowet, prevails most 

 in the neighborhood of the Pic. Can it be hj'brid between namaycush 

 and the siskowet ? 



GEOUGE BAENSTOK 



2.— LAKES ERIE AND ONTARIO. 



DOMINION OF Canada, 

 Ramilton, Ontario, Kovemher 18, 1872. 



Sir: I had the honor to receive from the minister of marine and fish- 

 eries of this Dominion, recently, a circular directing me to i^rocure 

 specimens of white-fish from those localities of my district situated in 

 Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, and to forward the same to you; and to 

 accompany them by any remarks on their habits and varieties I may 

 think of interest. 



In obedience to the instructions received, I now send you four large 

 white-fish I obtained in Lake Erie^ near Port Dover, in the township of 

 Woodhouse, county of Norfolk, and province of Ontario, in this Domin- 

 ion. You will find the fish male and female. 



I also have the honor to send you at the same time four smallar white- 

 fish I procured in Lake Ontario, at Wynona, in the township of Salt- 

 fieet, in the South Eidiug of Wentworth, province of Ontario, and 

 Dominion of Canada. I believe you will also find the latter four fish 

 male and female. 



The white-fish at this season of the year, fall and winter, feed on 

 small shell-fish. This you can ascertain yourself by analyzing the con- 

 tents of their stomach. In spring and summer they feed on a kind of 

 shrimp-like insect; and from my knowledge and experience I have 

 never known them to change to any other kind of food than those two 

 kinds now described to you bv me. 



