128 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



So precise are they in their time of ajjpeariug that this fisherman has for 

 tfie last six or eight successive years taken fifty or seventy-five pounds 

 on the first da,y of October, when even the day before he oouhl neither 

 see a trout or get a bite. They failed, however, to be thus regular last 

 season. The first four days of October were quite warm and rainy, and 

 with almost constant fishing we caught only ten or fifteen pounds during 

 that time, and those in water of 20 or 25 feet in depth. This proximity 

 to the shore, however, showed them to be approaching their beds, and 

 a few cold nights brought them up. 



" The unusual milduess of the season causing too great a difference in 

 the temperature between the deep water they inhabit and the shallows 

 on the border, may be the cause of their late appearance. But it was 

 no easy matter to make a convert of the old fisherman to this doctrine ; 

 he held firmly to his old notion that ' they had a wonderful sight of alma- 

 nac learning ; ' they had only ' missed their reckoning.' Having reached 

 their beds they lose almost entirely their natural cautiousness and shy- 

 ness, and seem wholly absorbed iu the object of their visit, endeavoring 

 in turn to reach a bed which they remain upon till their ova are depos- 

 ited. If frightened by a sudden or violent motion of one standing on 

 the shore, over them as it were, they reluctantly retire a little distance, 

 but almost immediately return. The males follow the females closely 

 at this time. They are, I should think, about in the i^roportion of one 

 male to four or five females. I was in the habit of disturbing them 

 daily, from sunrise till dark, and prevented them to a great extent from 

 remaining quiet long enough to spawn; so they were compelled to come 

 u]) in the night in order to go through with their labor undisturbed. In • 

 the females, which I took the day before they began to spawn at night, 

 I found the membranes enclosing the mass of ova ruptured, and a con 

 tinuous line of single ova extending from the mass through the passage 

 and stopping directly within the external organs, which were very red 

 and much swollen. The spawning season lasts, I think, for two or thi-ee 

 weeks, after which they retire again to tl^ deep water, where they can- 

 be taken only in the winter through the ice. Generally, in spawning- 

 time, tiiere is no difficulty in taking them with a baited hook ; but last 

 season, perhaps owing to their being late, and pressed to the perform- 

 ance of their functions, they passed all kinds of bait and hook untouched. 

 In the winter the only bait used is the minnow ; but in October, it is 

 various, as the grasshopper, angle- worm, and artificial fly. These are 

 most used ; but I found that when they passed all these they would 

 often t-cike readily to their own spawn, dried a little in the sun. Another 

 means of taking them at this time is by a slip-noose of strong wire at- 

 tached to the end of a short pole. This is passed over the tail or head, 

 it matters little which, they are so careless at this time, and carried to 

 the center of the body, when a strong and sudden pull will bring them 

 to the shore. Another mode of catching them is by means of a large 

 hook attached to a short pole and line. This is carried under the fish, 

 and secured in the body by a sudden jerk which lands the fish on shore. 



