210 Bass, Pike, and Perch 



ning," are pronounced, crowds of anglers from 

 Chicago, Milwaukee, and all intermediate points, 

 with a unanimity of purpose, rush as one man 

 to the common centre of Lake Geneva, in eager 

 anticipation of the brief but happy season of " cis- 

 coing." Anglers of every degree armed with 

 implements of every description, from the artistic 

 split-bamboo rod of four ounces to the plebeian 

 cane pole or bucolic sapling of slender propor- 

 tions, and with lines of enamelled silk, linen, or 

 wrapping cord vie with one another in good- 

 natured rivalry in the capture of the silvery cisco. 

 Very little skill is required to fill the creel, as the 

 schools are on the surface of the water in myriads, 

 and the most bungling cast may hook a fish. 

 Though the etymology of the cisco is unknown, 

 it is a veritable entity, whose name is legion dur- 

 ing the month of June at Lake Geneva. 



The cisco is a localized variety of the so-called 

 lake-herring of the Great Lakes, and holds the 

 same relation to it that the landlocked salmon 

 does to the Atlantic salmon. Being confined to 

 small lakes, the cisco does not grow so large as 

 the lake herring. Before the Chicago and Mil- 

 waukee railway was built, in Wisconsin, there 

 was a plank road extending from Milwaukee to 



