498 The Michigan Grayling. 



their spawning is limited to a few days or a week or so. Of the 

 experts who have gone to the Au Sable to express the ova, fertilize 

 it, and bring it East to introduce this fish into the Atlantic States, 

 one found that they were not ready to spawn, and the next season, 

 another, who went a week or so later, found that they had spawned. 

 I have taken fry as long as my little finger on the first of September, 

 which were the produce of eggs spawned in April. Those that came 

 from ova of the preceding year were six inches long ; at two years 

 old, they are ten or twelve inches long ; at three years old, they are 

 thirteen to fifteen inches long ; and at four years, sixteen or seventeen 

 inches, and weigh from three-quarters of a pound to a pound and a 

 quarter ; each succeeding year adding proportionately less to their 

 length and more to their girth. An abundance or deficiency of food, 

 however, has much influence on their growth, while some are natu- 

 rally more thrifty than others. Sir Humphrey Davy says : " Gray- 

 ling hatched in June become in the same year, in September or 

 October, nine or ten inches long, and weigh from half a pound to 

 ten ounces, and the next year are from twelve to fifteen inches." 

 On this point, as will be seen from the foregoing, I differ with him. 

 I think he must have written from hearsay. 



In Michigan, in a day's fishing, the true-hearted angler returns to 

 the water a great many more than he puts in his live-box. He will 

 keep none under a half pound, and where the streams are so abun- 

 dantly stocked, he will not begrudge their liberty to all under that 

 weight. Our grayling are much more slender than the European 

 species, but, if we credit English authors, do not attain as large a 

 size. Three-fourths of a pound with us is a good average size, and 

 one of a pound and a quarter is considered a large fish. I have 

 heard, however, of their being taken in the Jordan over three 

 pounds. The grayling is a fish of more symmetrical proportions 

 than the trout, although it has not the vermilion spots and bright 

 colors over its body, but its head and mouth are much smaller, and 

 with handsome, prominent eyes. Its habits also differ materially 

 from those of the trout. It is never found in the strong, turbulent 

 water at the head of a rift, but in the deeper portions of the smoothly 

 gliding stream. It avoids a bottom of clay or the mosses so com- 

 mon to the beds of Michigan rivers, but is always found on gravel 

 or sand. Its rise is straight up — sharp and sudden, and when its 



