10 EEPORT OF ONTARIO GAME No. 52 



vested in numerous and more or less independent authorities, namely, the 

 Federal Government of the United States, the Governments of Indiana, 

 Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wis- 

 consin, the Dominion Government of Canada and the Government of the 

 Province of Ontario, many and various expedients have been resorted to, 

 scientific investigations made, laws, regulations and restrictions intro- 

 duced, and experiments in fish hatchery operations on a large scale in- 

 stituted and tried out, so that before entering upon a discussion as to 

 the best means of rehabilitating the commercial fisheries of Ontario it 

 becomes necessary to review briefly the results that have been obtained 

 under various conditions prevailing in different localities throughout 

 l:he Great Lakes, and it is plain, also, that what scientific knowledge 

 there is of the lives, habits and distribution of the various fishes under 

 consideration should be clearly borne in mind, for more than once in the 

 history of the Great Lakes legislation has been introduced and enacted 

 to meet supposed conditions, quite at variance with the laws of nature, 

 owing entirely to the machinations of those whose misrepresentations 

 were the outcome of purely selfish interests. It would seem, however, 

 hardly to fall within the scope of a report of this nature to delve deeply 

 into the mysteries of scientific research in regard to each individual class 

 of fish, even were your Commissioner a scientific icthyologist, to which 

 distinction he lays no claim, and it is deemed, therefore, sufficient for the 

 purposes of this report to set out the salient features within the knowl- 

 edge of present day science in regard to one most prominent variety, the 

 whitefish, while calling attention to the fact that, although all that is 

 said may not apply equally to every other variety of commercial fish, 

 much of it is directly pertinent and applicable in a slighth^ modified 

 form. 



The Whitefish. 



There are three species of fishes commonly referred to as whitefish, 

 namely, the true whitefish (Coregonus Clupeiformis Mitchill), the Frost 

 Fish (Coregonus quadrilateralis), and the Sault Whitefish (Coregonus 

 labradoricus). Investigation has disclosed that the true whitefish is a 

 bottom feeder, as also that the depth at which it occurs most abundantly 

 is 10-35 fathoms. 



This range is that occupied by the fish during eight or nine months 

 of the year, and is, therefore, undoubtedly its main feeding grounds. It 

 is likewise the area over which commercial fishing operations have been 

 carried on profitably at other times than during the migrations of the 

 fish. In discussing, then, the common or true whitefish it becomes at 

 once apparent that the area available to this fish is comparatively limited. 

 It is probably true that young whitefish of less than 11/4 lbs. are to be 

 caught in depths of water ranging from 20 feet up, but as these are im- 

 mature fish and consequently unsuited for commercial purposes, this 

 fact does not materially affect the question of available whitefish area. 



