THE MICHIGAN GRAY-LING. 



By THADDEUS NORRIS, 



AUTHOR OF "AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK. 



UNTIL within a few years, that portion of Michigan extending 

 from the forty-fourth parallel to the Straits of Mackinaw, 

 dotted with beautiful lakes and traversed by many a clear, 

 winding river, was terra incognita to the fly-fisher ; and although 

 we were told years ago by explorers and adventurous anglers that 

 trout in great numbers and of large size were taken in the waters of 

 the northern portion of the peninsula, the grayling by its true name 

 was unknown, and does not now form a subject for any of our 

 angling authors. It was supposed that, except in the Arctic regions, 

 it did not exist on our continent. About ten years ago, however, 

 hunters, and those who were looking up timber lands, began to talk 

 of a white-meated fish with all the game qualities of the trout, which 

 they captured in streams of both water-sheds — east and west — as 

 an addition to their venison and "hard-tack." It was known to them 

 as the "white trout," the " Crawford County trout," and under other 

 local names, until a specimen in alcohol was sent to Professor E. D. 

 Cope, of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, who de- 

 scribed it in the proceedings of that institution in the year 1865, and 

 gave it the scientific name of Tkymalius tricolor, the generic name 

 arising from the fresh thyme- y smell of the fish when first taken 

 from the water, the specific appellation having reference to its beauti- 

 ful dorsal fin. And yet its discovery as a true grayling escaped the 

 notice of nearly all of our fly-fishers ; and to the few who might 

 have meditated an expedition in search of it, its habitat was far off 



