6Q REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Although a ver}" geueral opiuioii prevails, iu difi'erent parts of the 

 lakes, that the herring spawns earlier than the white-fish, the oppor- 

 tunities afforded for observation, this season, indicated otherwise. 



In Green Bay it was asserted that the herring came on to the shore 

 iu masses about the Gth of Xoveuiber, and although they were found 

 in more or less abundance at all seasons of the year, there was a very 

 evideut geueral movement at that time. The only positive evidence of :, 

 the fact of spawning is the emission of spawn by the fish when handled, } 

 and tlie migrations of the schools and the mere fact that the spawn 

 are large does not determine the season of spawning. In regions ., 

 where fishing is not carried on late in the season, it is a very common i] 

 habit among the fishermen to conclude on some particular time during ;^ 

 the fishing as the spawning-period, basing the belief on migration or 

 appearance of the spawn, when, in reality, the fish do not spawn until 

 after the fishing-season closes. 



By November 25 of last year, the majority of white-fish in the west- 

 ern end of Lake Erie were found to have finished spawning. Witli 

 few exceptions the ovaries were emptied of their load of eggs ; the 

 abdomen was wrinkled and flaccid, and but few eggs were emitted 

 wheu thrown into the boats or on the fish-house floor. The lake-her- 

 rings at this time were found to be full of ripe eggs, which were voided 

 from the ovipore of females whenever the fish was moved, and even while 

 lying in heaps on the bottom of the boats or floors of the fish-houses.- 

 Earlier than this, between the 1st of November and the 20th, examina- 

 tion of the ovaries on nearly everyday had found, in the larger propor- 

 tion, the ovaries hard and compact. 



The herring were taken at this time in their usual haunts, the pound- 

 nets capluring them in immense quantities, making it probable that 

 they do not change their locality in the spawning-season. What their 

 subseciuent habits may be, would require observation later in the sea- 

 son than fishing is generally carried on, though the new custom of t 

 allowing pound-nets to remain until the ice has covered the bays would 

 afford a favorable opportunity. If they remain upon the spawning- 

 grounds they would undoubtedly be their own worst agent of destruc- 

 tion. 



In the winter of 1871, in Green Bay, to the south of Escanaba, Mich., , 

 it was discovered that the herring had congregated in large numbers in i 

 an open space free from ice next to the shore where a number of springs > 

 in the bank supplied a quantity of water of too high a temperature to > 

 freeze readily. Minnows were found crowded iu masses at the water's 

 edge, and using them for bait the herring were taken iu large numbers, 

 and occasionally a white-fish from about twenty inches of water. 



All that is known of the time of hatching of the herring-ova is irom 

 the experiments of Mr. Seth Green. 



In the report of the commissioners of fisheries for the State of New 

 York for the year 1871, it is stated that a quantity of the impregnated 



