102 Tliirfij-Firsl AiiniKi] fleeting 



thought })erha])s it Mouhl l)e interesting to state something that 

 has occurred in my own experience in ket^ping whitetish in 

 aquaria. Tliere is a whitefish which you know has been called 

 the Ijabrador whitefish, but which I cannot distinguish by any 

 essential characters from the common wliitefish of the great 

 lakes. All the characteristics tliat have l)een assigned to them by 

 ichthyological writers prove to be transitorv or non-existent, and 

 for that reason I still hold to tlie 0])inion expressed a few years 

 ago, that the Labrador whitefisli and tlie common whitefish are 

 the same species. 



Xow, it has l:)een supposed, I think very generally, that that 

 form of whitefish with the small mouth and the lower jaw 

 shorter than the upper will not take the hook and will not take 

 live bait. In the aquarium of Xew York City in 1S9T we had a 

 lot of so-called Ijabrador wlutefish from Canandaigua lake. 

 Tliey were fed upon small fresh water shrimp, which were 

 ship])<'d from Caledonia and otlier ])nrts of the state. They fed 

 very readily upon them, l)ut after a time it was difficult to 

 obtain that food, and then we Ijegan putting into the tanks small 

 salt water minnows, or mummichogs (killifish), and in a very 

 little while the Labrador wliitefish were rising to them and 

 taking them the same as the trout did. and they continued to 

 feed on them for months at a time. 



And another fact, in (*anan(hugua lake, fishermen catch those 

 same whitefish on Ijaited hooks. 



I saw a little item in Forest cC* Stream, by a Canadian mem- 

 l)er of ihe Fishery Commission, to the effect that the new white- 

 fisli, wliich evidently is closely related to the common whitefisli, 

 and I I hi Ilk Dr. Smith has id^nlilicd it as l\icliardson"s white- 

 fish, is known up tluM-c fo fa.ke llie li(>ok. and is so caught. I sav 

 lliis in dereiise of my friend Coinniodore Gunckel, and as a mat- 

 ter of some interest, liecause I (h) not think it is generally known 

 that the conimon whitefish will take the hook. 



]\fr. Clai-k : 1 believe that Dr. Gunckel thought I would not 

 smile ^\•hen he spoke of catching the eighteen pound whitefish 

 with a fly. 1 want to say that whitefish weighing two and one- 

 half or three ])()unds. which ha\-e been raised in our ponds, take 

 (lies from file top of the water. 



