84 



imd beyond evei-ytliing else, the j)olliition of the streams 

 should be prevented. 



THE SISKIWIT. 

 By R. O. Sweeny, Sr. 



Some time ago, in a communication to Mr. G. Brown 

 Goode, of the Smithsonian Institution, which communica- 

 tion was elicited by some previous correspondence with 

 my distinguished friend, Mr. Fred Mather, upon the sub- 

 ject of the siskiwit of Lake Superior — ^in the material 

 set forth in my letter, which was very largely the result 

 of my own personal and careful investigation of the lish 

 themselves, with statements from the fishermen and dealers 

 carefully collated and compared, to secure only facts if 

 possible — among the items so stated was that setting 

 forth that the "siskiwit were spawning all the time,'' 

 ripe tish being taken at all seasons. This anomalous con- 

 dition of affairs being so at variance with my actual knowl- 

 edge of the habits of fishes generally, I hesitated to put 

 it forth without most carefully questioning the fishermen 

 and those who have actually seen the tish lifted from the 

 nets, and testified as to the eggs always dripping from the 

 fish. This unusual, if not unique, habit or condition of the 

 siskiwit has always challenged my investigation, and since 

 my residence again upon the lake, have gathered a few 

 more items, which may prove not uninteresting. 



The siskiwit — and I find there are two of him recog- 

 nized by the fishermen — are deep-water fishes, living down 

 in the icy and mysterious profound from 600 to 1,000 feet ! 

 At this enormous depth, in this truly wondrous lake, the 

 pressure is so enormous that the wooden floats of the nets, 

 though thoroughly seasoned and boiled in oil repeatedly, 

 to make them waterproof, are dragged wp with difficulty, 



