NOTES EELATIVE TO THE WHITE-FISH. 83 



stormy duriug the month of i^^ovember; but unfortunately the stormy 

 weather continued, and no white-fish were secured. 



From thirty years experience as a fisherman, and after obtaining" all 

 the information possible from others on the habits of white-fish, I beg 

 leave to remark that during the month of November the white-fish are 

 known to unite, or join iu pairs, male and female, and that they ap- 

 proach the shore for the i)urpose of spawning. Should the weather be 

 very cold they move more rapidly and arrive at their destination about 

 the loth. Their favorite place is a sheltered or laud-locked bay or inlet 

 having a sandy or gravelly bottom. When in from 10 to 20 feet of 

 water the female, endowed with an instinctive knowledge that her time 

 has come for depositing a part of her spawn, selects a spot and com 

 mences to dig vigorously with her head, at the same time moving the 

 tail rapidly to stir the sand or gravel; in a short time she forms a nest 

 about two. inches deep; the male, staying close by, seems to be atten- 

 tively watching her movements. When the nest is satisfactorily arran ged 

 she ejects a quantity of spawn into it. The male immediately darts 

 alongside of her and impregnates it with the milt. He then moves off a 

 little way while she covers it partly over with her nose and tail. They 

 remain near the spot two or three days, until all the eggs are dej)Osited 

 in the same nest, when they return to the deep in search of food, leav- 

 ing the eggs and young fish, when hatched out, to shift for themselves. 

 In the meantime the spawn, being heavier than water, remains on the 

 bottom, which it would do even if not partly covered over, nature hav- 

 ing provided an adhesive substance which fastens it to the sand or 

 gTavel. It remains about one hundred days, when the young fish emerge 

 into life. While they were exposed for so long a time we cannot fail to 

 admire the beautiful and mysterious laws of nature manifested in their 

 protection from the severity, of the weather, from predacious wild fowl, 

 from voracious fish and from reptiles, which duriug the winter are iu a 

 semi-dormant state. 



As soon as the young fish are strong enough to move off they gradu- 

 ally work out into the deep, where they remain three or four years, 

 when they attain their full or average size, and move round periodically 

 with the parent-fish to their various feeding and spawning grounds. 



White-fish are very prolific, and would multiply very rapidly if not 

 destroyed by a reckless mode of fishing. Many valuable fishing- 

 grounds have been, rendered useless by hauling seines during the 

 breeding season, since, in such case, the parent-fish are not only de- 

 stroyed, but the spawn is disturbed by the seines dragging along the 

 bottom, so that it will not hatch. Another destructive mode of fishing 

 is to set gill-nets across the mouths of bays or inlets, where the fish, iu 

 accordance with their habit, enter- in periodically; these nets turn their 

 course some other way, and it will be clearly understood that they are 

 so social in their nature, that in whatever direction the main body of 

 them incline the others are sure to follow. Our fishery laws have done 

 much already toward the prevention of such abuses. 



