288 NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



Where fishing is extensively carried oh, many nets are lost by the 

 lines parting, and the buoys and flags going loose. The nets remain 

 at the bottom continually catching fish, which remain and perish. 

 Other nets, with fish in them, are broken up by storms and left scat- 

 tered about the bottom. The effect of this is to drive off" the fish and 

 destroy the fisheries. But no amount of fishing, wiiere these calamities 

 were avoided, has ever sensibly diminished their productiveness. 



Spawning grounds. — In passing over the lake in the fishing region, 

 when the surface is perfectly unruffled, the man of science is surprised 

 to see the bottom regularly yaved with large stones. Careful observation 

 shows that, naturally, the bottom was strewn with boulders, varying 

 in weight Irom such as can be lifted with one hand to mountain masses 

 of detached rock. 



Selecting some convenient point with a large boulder as a nucleus, 

 the others have been rolled together, so as to form a compact pavement, 

 in some instances, of many acres in extent without a single blank 

 S{face. In doing this work all the other ground is cleared of rock, ex- 

 cept here and there a boulder of several tons weight. Throughout 

 these pavements a few large boulders remain scattered as by the hand 

 of nature. But, except them, the smallest rocks are in the centre of 

 each pavement, gradually enlarging as j'^ou approach the circumference, 

 till the outside courses are only perceptibly less than the scattered 

 boulders which remain unmoved. There is an entire absence of all 

 mathematical arrangement, but in its kind no work of man can be more 

 perfect. 



The islands oi" this region are an upheaval, and in several places 

 these pavements are now above water and can be examined to ad- 

 vantage, and there can be no mistake as to their structure. They are 

 found in the greatest depths that the eye can penetrate. Some are a 

 few rods and others many acres in extent ; and the vacant spots inter- 

 vening are (except occasionally an immense boulder) as thoroughly 

 cleared of every kind of stone as a well-kept lawn. They present 

 only the appearance of clean washed sand. 



Fish, when spawning, are observed to place small stones and pebbles 

 in this same order, and all are agreed that these are spawning grounds. 

 When it is considered that the ponderability of stone in water dimin- 

 ishes as the depth increases, it rriay not be deemed incredible that the 

 present known species of fish have made these pavements for spawn- 

 ing grounds. I will not, however, speculate further, but submit the 

 fact for the consideration of those more capable of judging. 



A thousand avocations and duties constantly pressing upon me have 

 prevented my giving the attention to these subjects that I would be pleased 

 to. But if the lew facts I have been able to obtain, and this hurried 

 communication, prepared in haste (with many others) in the few hours 

 that the last steamboat of the season lies in this harbor, is of any value, 

 I shall be quite happy to continue to correspond, and to continue, as 

 far as possible, to make observations for that purpose. 



