520 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



closest to this species is usually very abundant wherever it occurs. In some waters its 

 average size is about i pound, for which reason, many years ago, it was denominated 

 " poundfish. " In some northern Maine waters individuals weighing as much as 6 pounds 

 have been observed. In some localities it is called whiting and in some other New 

 England waters it is erroneously called shad. Among the Canadian French of northern 

 Maine it is known as pointeur and poisson pointu and in other places as poisson blanc. 

 It subsists largely upon small crustaceans, aquatic larvse of insects, and small fishes, 

 such as occur in the depths inhabited by whitefish, but it very frequently approaches 

 the surface and feeds upon insects that have fallen upon the water. 



It is an excellent food fish, but is not usually regarded as a game fish. The usual 

 methods of capture have been by seining during the spawning runs and with bait through 

 the ice. Yet it has been taken on an artificial fly and by trolling. Upon a light rod 



and small fly it affords excellent 

 sport, especially in streams, where 

 it may sometimes be caught even 

 in the summer. 



The whitefish of Umbagog is the 

 result of a plant made by the Maine 

 fish commissioners in Oquossoc and 

 Mooselucmaguntic Lakes in 1881, 

 regarding which the Maine Fish 

 Commission Report for that year 

 has the following : 



Fig. 



-Head of Umbagog Lake whitefish (Coreffonus clupeaformis) . 



We were presented by Prof. Baird.from 

 the establishment of Frank N. Clark, 

 North ville, Mich., 1,000,000 whitefish eggs. 

 Owing to the extreme cold weather, long distance of transportation, and tenderness of the eggs, 

 the percentage of loss was large. Should judge about 25 per cent of the eggs hatched. They were 

 received in February; were hatched and turned loose March 20. About 15,000 of these were put in 

 Rangeley, the balance were turned loose in Mooselucmaguntic Lake. 



The only possible indication of its subsequent appearance in the upper lakes is the 

 statement of a resident of Rangeley, who told the writer in 1904 that he knew of one, 

 and only one, having been taken in Oquossoc Lake, about three or four 3'ears before. 

 In the winter of 1903 it was first detected in Umbagog Lake by Capt. Dana Brooks, of 

 Upton, when fishing for pickerel near Metallak Island. Capt. Brooks subsequently 

 informed the writer that the fish were taken on small fish bait, and some were caught 

 in that way every winter. 



H. O. Stanley, then a member of the Maine Inland Fish and Game Commission, 

 had several of these fish sent to the Bureau of Fisheries, with the statement that they 

 were the first evidences of the results of his plant in 1881. 



There is some uncertainty regarding whether or not the present form is specificallj 

 identical with the common Maine whitefish, formerly known as Coregonus lahradoricus . 

 A comparison of the specimens from Umbagog Lake with native Maine whitefish of like 

 and diverse sizes reveals some slight but, so far as these specimens are concerned, con- 

 stant structural differences. The same differences obtain between specimens from 

 Lake Michigan and the Maine fish. While these differences are slight, the characteris- 

 tics presented by the M line fish persist in a large number that have been examined. 



