654 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
LOCAL HABITS OF WHITEFISH. 
Not only does each lake have its race of whitefish, but there are reasons for 
the belief that parts of lakes are inhabited by races peculiar to them. On this 
point Milner (1874, p. 47) has the following to say: 
The presence of large whitefish in numbers in certain localities on the north shore of 
Lake Michigan, of a size that are never taken at other parts of the lake, would indicate a 
local habit, with no disposition to range through long distances. 
Another observation, sustaining the probability of this, is the fact that there are 
many localities on the lakes where the pound nets, a few years ago, found prosperous 
fishing, and in the first few years took the whitefish in great abundance, but found 
afterwards a decrease from year to year until the locality was abandoned, while 50 
miles away the business continued successful. 
* * * * * * * 
The fact that certain types of whitefish are peculiar to certain localities, as the north 
shore of Lake Michigan, the Sault Ste. Marie Rapids, Bachewauna Bay on Lake Su- 
perior, indicates a local habit through many generations until certain characters of a 
race have become established. The same fact has been stated for the shad on the 
Atlantic coast. 
Some observations made in 1871 perhaps indicate the opposite of all the foregoing 
statements. 
In the early part of the season there had been a few fish caught on the west shore of 
Lake Michigan between Chicago and the Door Islands. South of Chicago, at the mouth 
of the Calumet River, the run of whitefish was in excess of anything had for years. But 
about the 15th of June the schools of fish left Calumet, and a few days later there was a 
decided improvement in the catch at Evanston. About June 22 the lifts at Waukegan 
began to be heavier than they had been before. During the first week of July the fishing 
was observed to improve at Milwaukee, Manitowoc, Baileys Harbor, and, a little later, at 
the Door Islands. 
The coincidence in dates rather indicates that the same schools of fish that clogged 
the nets at Calumet during six or seven weeks had ranged northward along 260 miles of 
coast. Still the effect upon the fishing would have been the same if it had been the 
migrations of schools of fish from deep water at these points in to the shore. 
The explanation here offered by Milner, that the phenomenon described in 
the paragraph is indeed due to the inshore migration of local groups of whitefish 
beginning at the southern end of the lake and proceeding northward on the west 
shore, is most probable and is in harmony with the other facts which he cites, 
as well as with what we now know of local races in other species of fish. 
We are concerned here only with those movements of the whitefish which 
take place out of the spawning season, yet it may not be without interest to cite 
further from Milner to show that even during the spawning run the movements 
of the fish are more local than would be thought. He says: 
It is a singular fact that the whitefish are not known to descend from Lake Huron 
into the St. Clair River. This is established by abundant evidence from continued 
fishing at Fort Gratiot, where Mr. Clark, between the years 1830 and 1842, took large 
quantities of the wall-eyed pike, Stizostedion americana, taking frequently 1,000 barrels 
a year. The catch of whitefish amounted to an occasional supply for his own table, 
except after long continued storms from the northward, when the fish sometimes entered 
