Fish Gxdturists' Association. 39 



Man}" of the grayling streams — and there are few without them — have 

 their origin in lakes abounding in pickerel, bass and yellow perch ; and 

 altliough the outlets are as warm as the lakes where they debouch, the 

 temperature is so quickl}" reduced b}' the small affluents already men- 

 tioned, that in a short distance they become cold enough for graj-ling. 

 Grayling are not found in the lakes, or pickerel, bass and perch in the 

 streams flowing from them ; and a somewhat anomalous fact is that trout 

 are not often found in the grayling streams — graj'ling, as a general rule, 

 being almost the onlj' fish of any importance. In water of such uniform 

 temperature, insect life is abundant at all seasons — the work of pro- 

 creation being kept up as well in winter as in summer. One of the few 

 instances of this kind in the east can be observed in Caledonia Creek, in 

 the State of New York. 



In that part of Michigan where gra3ling are found, the country is so 

 nearly level, that the banks have but a few feet elevation above the 

 surface of the streams, so that they appear bank-full ; and there being 

 but slight water-shed, the}' are subject to but slight rise or fall — pursuing 

 their courses with strong, but smooth and uniform, flow. 



Such are the natural homes of the gra3'ling ; and although I would not 

 discourage a rigorous prosecution of the experiment of introducing it in 

 the east, where, in our part of the Union, I would ask, can we provide it 

 such habitat? Certainly not in our rock}', mountainous regions, where 

 we go for trout, or in the Adirondacks, or in Maine or New Hampshire— 

 the onl}' waters we have at all like those of Michigan, and the few 

 streams flowing from large limestone springs. 



In many respects the habits of the grayling are the reverse of those of 

 our trout. The former spawn in April, the latter in November. The 

 trout will wriggle into the smallest tributar}', while the grayling spawns 

 uniformly in the wide open stream. As to its excellence for the table, 

 it does not compare with the trout ; as a sporting fish, it is not a whit 

 inferior. To run the Au Sable, sitting in the bow of a fairy-like shell of 

 a boat, with Len Jewel and his setting pole in the stern, to direct its 

 course, whipping its smooth, rapidl3'-gliding pools, is the ne 2)lus ultra 

 of fly-fishing. 



