110 Tivcnty-sevcnlh Annual Meeting 



ganized an expedition, quite a number of spawning grayling were 

 obtained, and the fish were held in a preserve where they might 

 spawn naturally. I never was entirely satisfied with the care exer- 

 cised over those fish in that experiment, but as a matter of fact, it 

 resulted in nothing. We tried it two or three years, but it failed. 

 Seth Green once said to me: "VVhitaker, you will never be able to 

 raise the grayling; he is an Indian, and won't stand domestica- 

 tion." And it seems as though he was right. 



I don't coincide with the professor's ideas as to their edible 

 qualities. I do not tliink they can be compared with the brook 

 trout. For fighting (]ualities they rank well ; for the novice fly 

 fisherman they are the fish ])ar excellence, because anv green- 

 horn can get him. Dr. Parker once told me that on a branch 

 of the Manistee River he noticed a little grayling rising to natural 

 food on the surface, and he counted that he rose twenty-seven 

 times. 



It seems to me after the experience we have had, that it is 

 a loss of time to try to do anything with the grayling. He 

 isn't worth the trouble. The brook trout is a superior fish in 

 every respect, and res]ionds so kindly and readilv to tlie methods 

 of propagation that it is hardly worth while to do anything with 

 the artificial culture of the grayling. T hope Dr. Henshall will 

 succeed. He is a careful man, a jiainstaking man. and it is (|uite 

 possil)le in that country where the streams are not subjected to 

 log running he may succeed. I think it may be ])ossible that 

 this massing of eggs he speaks of is due to the injury they re- 

 ceived in the sixty miles of haul. 



Mr. Clark: As a partial answer to Mr. Peabody's question of 

 why we abandoned the work. I should say, as Air. Whitaker 

 has said, that they are not easily domesticated. At Northville 

 we proved, beyond a doubt, that you cannot do anything with the 

 grayling in confinement. You have the fish, but you si;nply can- 

 not get any eggs from them. This was also the experience of 

 Mr. Babbitt, of Michigan, who has also experimented with 

 them. I sometimes feel it is too bad that the grayling in Michi- 

 gan streams are going. I wish the Commissioners might have 

 reserved one stream until log-running was finished. It might be 

 well for the United States Commission to bring some of the Mon- 

 tana orayling.and plant them in some of those streams, because 

 they never can do any hurt; they never eat any trout; it cannot do 

 the harm the brown trout of Germany do. I don't think it is prac- 

 tical to undertake to get grayling eggs in Alichigan now. 



