26 FISHES AND FISHING IN SUNAPEE LAKE. 



The round whitefish may be distinguished from the common white- 

 fish by its more cyUndrical or spindle-shaped form, smaller mouth, 

 compressed and sharper snout, and more numerous scales. In the 

 Connecticut Lakes it is known as "billfish." 



In the Report of the Fish and Game Commissioners of New Hamp- 

 shire, 1881, page 21, the following paragraph appears: 



WINNEPESAUKEE WHITEFISH, OR " SHAD- WAITER." 



This delicious fish is little known in the State, except to the inhabitants of the towns 

 bordering on Lake Winnepesaukee, but is really one of the most valuable food fishes 

 we have. 



It is a local variety of the celebrated whitefish of the Great Lakes, and is unsurpassed 

 in its qualities as a table fish. It belongs to the same great family of Salmonidse, and 

 is now classed by Profs. Jordan and Milner as Prosopium quadrilateralis . We took at 

 Weirs Village, last November, 60,000 eggs of this fish, one-half of which were sent to 

 Massachusetts, and the remainder will be placed in Simapee Lake. We believe that 

 the propagation of this variety of fish should be followed up in future, and one or more 

 of our largest lakes stocked annually with from 20,000 to 30,000 young fry. All expe- 

 rience goes to show that the larger the plant made the more likely it is to be successful. 



No further mention is made of planting the fish in Sunapee Lake. 

 While according to Dr. Prescott,® this fish, which he describes as new 

 under the name of Coregonus Nov-Anglise, is called "shad-waiter" at 

 Winnepesaukee, and the common whitefish, which he also describes 

 as new under the name of Coregonus Neo-Hantoniensis, is called ''the 

 whiting," there is some doubt whether this species and not the com- 

 mon whitefish is meant in the preceding quotation from the com- 

 missioners' report, since it is there stated that "it is a local variety 

 of the celebrated whitefish of the Great Lakes." 



Chinook Salmon {Oncorhynchus tschawytscha) . 



The chinook salmon is an inhabitant of Pacific waters, its geo- 

 graphical range extending from Alaska to the Ventura River in 

 California, and northern China on the Asiatic coast. It is the salmon 

 that made Columbia River famous and is by far the most valuable 

 of its tribe. It attains the largest size of the five species belonging 

 to the genus Oncorhynchus (hook-nose), individuals weighing over 

 100 pounds having been reported. It does not, however, average 

 much, if any, over 20 pounds. 



Habits. — Like other salmon, much of its life is spent in the sea, 

 whence to breed it ascends fresh-water rivers, when possible to theii* 

 utmost sources, sometimes more than 1,000 miles from the sea. The 

 time of its runs and the spawning time varies in different rivers. In 

 southern rivers there are spring runs and summer spawning, and 

 later runs with fall spawning. The early runs ascend farthest up 

 the river. 



a Descriptions of new species of fishes, from " Synopsis of the Fishes of the Winnipesseogee and its Con- 

 necting Waters," Am. Jour. Sci. and Arts, 1851, p. 342, by William Prescott, M. D., of Concord, N. H. 



