Among the Ciscoes of Lake Geneva 
we made up a cast on a six-foot drawn 
gut leader, of a single fly, dressed in 
similar colors and form to that of the 
May insect, and essayed to capture 
them. The ciscoes would pass by our 
delicately manipulated feathers and 
take the natural lure and only one to 
six of those taken by Mr. Alfred did 
we manage to hook, and of these only 
about one in five we succeeded in boat- 
ing, when we played them on our light 
and yielding rod. The hook invariably 
tore out, except as we have noted be- 
fore, when they were fastened at the 
extreme end of the upper lip. 
The residents of Lake Geneva justly 
pride themselves in possessing a fish of 
unique character, superlative flavor and 
of unusually erratic habits. They told 
us that it was never seen at any other 
period than when the May fly was prev- 
alent, inthe latter part of May and early 
June, although instances had occurred 
when a few of them were caught fish- 
ing through the ice. If the cisco of 
Lake Geneva is not seen in the shallow 
water of the lake during the months of 
November and December, a habit pos- 
sessed by the ciscoes or ‘‘ herrings ” 
(so-called) of Michigan, Erie and other 
deep lakes, it is certainly swz generis. 
We omitted to ask if they had been so 
seen by the anglers of Lake Geneva, 
but from their positive assertion as to 
their appearance only during ‘fly 
time,’ and an occasional capture in 
deep water in the winter season, we 
presume that they have never been ob- 
served in the shallow water during the 
months named. The absence of this 
habit in the Lake Geneva cisco would 
seem to entitle it, indisputably, to a 
special classification, if not that given 
it by Dr. Jordan—Coregonus artedi var 
SISCO. 
In this connection it may be well to 
245 
state that we have followed the old 
method of spelling the name of this 
fish, czsco, rather than szsco, simply be- 
cause we know no just reason why the 
change was made, and, as our head 
grows hoary, we are becoming day by 
day more in love with anciently-fash- 
ioned ways and things. It nearly 
wrung the heart out of one of our old 
angling chums when the fiat went forth 
that the brook beauty of the mountain 
was no longer sa/imo, but sa/velinus, and 
the tear was in his eye, when he told 
us he could bear in his old age with the 
innovations of applied electricity, flying 
machines and the ‘‘bike,” but he felt 
like parting with a heart string when 
fontinalis was rebaptised. And many 
of us are in sympathy with this old 
angler of the days gone by. 
As we all know, the ciscoes, or ‘‘ lake 
herrings,” as they are locally and com- 
mercially called, belong to the salmon 
family, as also all the whitefishes, 
whether caught in the broad deep 
waters of the lakes, or in the streams, 
large and small. Their distinguishing 
mark, to the layman angler or observer, 
is the fatty or adipose fin on the back 
near the tail. No other fishes of 
American fresh waters, except the cat- 
fishes, possess this peculiar fin, and as 
the catfish is known to every fisher, 
white or black, particularly the latter, 
a member of the salmon family can 
readily be distinguished. And if the 
angler is conversant with the general 
markings of the trouts, lake or brook, 
and of the graylings, smelts, or sea 
salmons, he will be able to tell at once 
a whitefish when he sees it, and the 
accompanying illustrations will aid him 
in distinguishing the cisco from its 
congeners of the lakes or streams. For 
those who desire to go deeper into the 
subject, we briefly enumerate the dif- 
