WALL EYED PIKE IN LAKE HURON. 423 



the nets in such quantities, and at aseason wbeu the market is already full, that they are often sold 

 for the freight charges only. Mr. McGraw thinks there is an appreciable increase in their numbers 

 eac!i year. Tn 1879 as high as four tons were taken from one pound at a single lift. When salted 

 they are called "Medium" and "No. 2 Pickerel." The reason so few are salted in proportion to the 

 amount caught is on account of the low price realized for them, coming, as they do, into competition 

 with more valuable kinds. From the following it will be seen that the profits to tbe fishermen are 

 very small: 



Cost of packing 100 pounds salt flsh ready for market: Half barrel, 35 cents; dressing fish, 

 12 cents; salt, 15 cents; salting, 10 cents; inspection, 25 cents; total, 97 cents. Then add cost of 

 from 160 to 175 pounds of undressed fish, and sell for $1.50 per half barrel, and the profits are 

 very small. 



At Black River, Amherst, and Brownhelm, Ohio, the most important flsh is the Blue Pike. The 

 largest runs occur in May and October. Mr. Freund thinks tteat they spawn in June or the latter 

 days of May. The general impression amongst the fishermen is that they do not spawn, as none 

 of them have seen the spawn in the flsh. Such quantities are sometimes taken that it is very 

 difficult to take care of them all. They are used fresh, and are also salted. 



At Cleveland and the Dover Bay fisheries the Blue Pike is the principal fish and very 

 abundant. They are taken as soon as the fishermen get their nets in, but more plentifully at the 

 end of spring and fall than at the beginning of those t-vo seasons. It often happens that such 

 quantities are taken that they cannot be disposed of. They appear to be increasing every year ; 

 as high as twenty tons are reported from four nets in one day. About one-fourth of the ca'ch is 

 salted ; the fishermen say that the early-caught flsh do not salt so well as those taken later. The 

 average weight is about one pound, those coming on first in spring averaging, perhaps, less than 

 this weight, but the late runs are larger. It is said that specimens have been caught among the 

 islands at the west end of the lake weighing fifteen ponnds. All the fishermen say they never saw 

 one with ripe spawn. Formerly they were classed as "hard fish," but now they sell as "soft." 



At Oswego this species is called "Gray Pike," is quite common, and unusually silvery in 

 appearance. At Cape Vincent they are known only as stragglers. At Chanmont they are very 

 rare, and at Sacket's Harbor very few are caught. 



The " Jack" on the Ohio River, as described by Jordan in the lately published report on the 

 fishes of Ohio, reaches occasionally forty pounds. " It possesses great activity and strength, and 

 is a ravenous destroyer of Perch and other species. Were it not so superior in every way to 

 ethers, this habit might condemn it ; as it is, we regard it as one of the best species we possess. 

 In the South it is eagerly bought, and forms the principal table fish for the various places of resort, 

 where it can be obtained." 1 "The 'Blue Pike,'" says Jordan, "is said to frequent only bayous 

 and inlets, not being taken in the deeper waters of the Lakes, where 8. vitreum especially abound. 

 It also reaches a smaller size, according to Mr. Klippart, who asks, 'Why does the Blue Pike 

 frequent the bayous and get to be no more than twelve to fifteen inches in length, and to weigh not 

 to exceed two or three pounds, if it is identical with the Wall-eyed Pike which frequents the deep 

 waters of tbe lake and attains a length of three feet and a weight of eighteen to twenty pounds!' 

 This species, according to Mr. Klippart, is at the Lake Erie fisheries split and salted with the 

 Sauger, 8. canadense, the two together being known to the commercial world as 'Pickerel No. 2,' 

 and bringing about two-thirds the price of Pickerel No. 1, which is 8. vitreum. m 



'COPE, Kept. Comm. Fish Penn., 1881, 128. 

 Geological Survey of Ohio, iv, part i, p. 64. 



