48 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



The coincidence in dates rather indicated a probability that the same 

 schools of fish that clogged the nets at Calarnet dnriug six or seven weeks 

 had ranged northward along two hnndred and sixty miles of coast. 

 Still, the effect on the^shing 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. 



In order to obtain a definite knowledge of their habits in this particu- 

 lar, metal tags, with numbers indicating the locality, were distributed to 

 fishermen at twenty points along the lake, to be fastened to the fins of 

 live fish, which were then to be released. Instructions were at the same 

 time sent to all fishermen to report the capture of fish bearing these 

 marks, and the distances from where they were taken to the point of de- 

 parture would indicate the extent of their migrations. It is thought that 

 but few of them were used. A similar proceeding was afterward carried 

 out by Mr. George Clark, of Ecorse, on the Detroit River, but none of 

 the fish were ever heard from. 



Some of the fishermen of the west shore assert that, after severe 

 storms, encroaching on the shore, and making the water muddy for a 

 long distance out, when the storm subsides there is a heavy deposit of 

 mud on the bottom, and that the white-fish abandon the locality for a 

 time, because, as they surmise, their food is buried in the sediment. 

 On the contrary, after ordinary storms, there is generally an improve- 

 ment in the catch of fish, probably for the reason that the great aeration 

 of the water renders them lively, and incites them to move about. 



The migration from the southern portion of Lake Michigan is of yearly 

 occurrence, about the middle of June, and is, without doubt, occasioned 

 by the large extent of shoal water becoming heated. The same thing 

 occurs in Green Bay, and in the shoal regions of the western end of 

 Lake Erie. 



The migrations into shallow water, and up certain streams, in the fall 

 of the year, for the purpose of spawning, will be considered further on. 

 This migration, and the summer visit to the shore, are the general mi- 

 grations peculiar to the white-fish, while the departure from shoal re- 

 gions in summer, and from certain localities in August, are local pecu- 

 liarities. 



(22 d.) The habits of the ivhite-Jish during the spaiiming- season. — The 

 anadromous habit of the salmon is shared by their relatives, the Coregoni, 

 to a considerable extent. Several species are known to ascend the riv- 

 ers of Northern Asia and Europe, from the Arctic Sea. These migra- 

 tions, as described by Pallas, though they have not, perhaps, in all 

 species, a close relation to the time of spawning, in a few are quite evi- 

 dently for that special purpose, as, in his Salmo clupeoides, Coregonus 

 merUi of Gunther, he says they ascend the rivers during the autumn, 

 and return again when the ice forms. 



Others live indifferently in fresh and salt water. There are specimens, 

 in the National Museum, of white-fish collected by the late Mr. Drexler, 

 from Hudson's Bay. Some eight or nine species of the Arctic regions 



