1909] Lake Erie 



depths of which a thousand feet are biologically 

 a desert. The chief food fish of the Great Lakes is the 

 whitefish Coregonus of rich and toothsome 

 flavor. Allied to this are the lake herring Leucich- 

 thys of several species; next in importance comes 

 the Great Lakes or Mackinaw trout Cristivomer 

 which sometimes weighs fifty _or even one hundred 

 pounds. 



At the port of Erie, Pennsylvania, lake fishing 

 reaches its highest importance, and our stay there 

 threw much light on many problems. One fish dealer 

 with whom I entered into discussion stood behind a 

 counter loaded with lake trout, some of them under- 

 sized. Whenever my eyes were turned, he slipped one 

 troutlet after another to the floor until all that re- 

 mained in sight were above reproach! 



At Buffalo, Cleveland, Sandusky, and Monroe, 

 and about Port Stanley in Canada, we also found 

 great fisheries. At Toledo, the water being extremely 

 shallow, pound nets creep far out into the lake, a fact The 

 which annoys Canadian rivals because deeper water 

 on their side holds them close to shore; and Ohio 

 fishermen, moreover, have the advantage of ex- 

 tended markets from which our tariff debars the 

 others. 



At Port Stanley we found a new species of lake A fine 

 herring Leucichthys eriensis as delicious as the dlscover y 

 whitefish and almost as large. From the small and 

 shallow Lake St. Clair, abounding in black bass, we 

 crossed to Georgian Bay, the great eastern extension 

 of Huron and very different from the profound chan- 

 nel of the main body of water. As a youthful student 

 of Geography I conned the sentence, "The shape of 

 Lake Huron is very irregular; it contains 32,000 



C 261 ] 



