106 Tweiifx-iiiiith Annual Meeting 



MICHIGAN GRAYLING. 



(Thymallus Tricolor.) 



BY A. C. BABBITT, WILLIAMSBURG, MICH. 



Dr. Henshall's papers on Montana grayling were deeply in- 

 teresting to me, .carrying my thoughts backward to a time when 

 Michigan's type O'f the species — Thymallus Tricolor— were al- 

 most the sole occupants of at least one thousand miles of limpid, 

 running spring water, O'f varying width and deepness, threading 

 the pine-clad sections of twenty-three counties of the Peninsular 

 State lying north of a line drawn from the south line of Oceana 

 County, on Lake Michigan, running northeasterly to the lower 

 side of Arenac County, on Saginaw Bay. In the early seventies 

 most of the streams and tributaries in the following list were liter- 

 ally overstocked with grayling. The northern portion of Arenac 

 County is traversed by the Au Ores River, which mingles its 

 waters with those of Saginaw Bay. From thence north, flowing 

 into Lake Huron are the Au Sable, Black, Pigeon and Sturgeon 

 Rivers, besides two branches of the Thunder Bay River — the 

 Rainy River and Canada Creek. Frooi the apex of the peninsula 

 south, the waters of Lake Michigan receive those of the Maple, 

 Boyne, Jordan, Boardman, Manistee, Little Manistee, Pere Mar- 

 quette, White and Aluskegon Rivers, all of which were originally 

 the home of grayling. The one grayling stream of the Upper 

 Peninsula is the east branch of the Ontonagon River, which 

 empties into Lake Superior west of Keweenaw point. By coast 

 line the mouth of the Ontonagon is upwards of four hundred 

 miles from the coast to the Lower Peninsula. On account of the 

 strictly non-migratory habits of the Tricolor it would seem that 

 the Ontonagon specimen should receive a separate classification. 



My acquaintance with grayling dates from the winter of 1872 

 and 'y2)- -^ year or two previously Dr. J. C. Parker, of Grand 



