The Tullibee 



In the Great Lakes it is not at all common, but in Lake of 

 the Woods it is quite abundant, and considerable quantities are 

 shipped to Sandusky. In the provinces of Assiniboia and Mani- 

 toba the fish is taken in large numbers for local consumption, 

 in gillnets and in traps made of brush and stones. 



Writing of the tullibee in the lakes of the western territories 

 of Canada, Mr. F. C. Gilchrist, of Fort Qu' Appelle, says: 



" In September they will again be found gradually nearing 

 the shoal water, feeding heavily, and plump with fat and the 

 now swelling ovaries. Later on they appear to eat little or 

 nothing, and devote all their time to playing until about the 25th 

 of October, when they have settled down to the business of 

 propagation, which they have finished by November 10. They 

 prefer shallow water close to the shore with clean sand to 

 spawn on, and during the day they may be seen in pairs and 

 small schools, poking along the shores, but at night they come 

 in thousands and keep up a constant loud splashing and flutter- 

 ing, very strange and weird on a calm night. Two years ago I 

 carefully counted the ova from a ripe fish 2}^ pounds in weight, 

 and found there were 23,700, closely resembling whitefish eggs in 

 appearance, but somewhat smaller. After spawning the fish are 

 very thin, lank, dull in colour, and quite unfit for human food." 



Mr. James Annin, Jr., in speaking of the tullibee of Lake 

 Onondaga, says they generally commence running up on to the 

 shoals about November 15, and the season extends into 

 December. 



They come up to the banks or gravelly shoals and spawn 

 in from 3 to 6 and 7 feet of water. They have never been 

 caught with hook in this lake, and an old fisherman told me 

 that he had tried almost every kind of bait, and had used the 

 very finest gut and the smallest hooks baited with Gammartis 

 (freshwater shrimps) and other kinds of natural food — that is he 

 supposed the food was natural to them. At the same time he 

 claims he could see them in large schools lying in the water 8 

 or 10 feet from the surface. 



Head 4 to 4^; depth 3 to 3I; eye 4 to 5; snout about 5; D. 10 to 

 12; A. II or 12; scales 9-68 to 71-8; gillrakers 16 to 18+30 1034, 

 I to li in eyei maxillary 3^; mandible 2 to 2^. Body short and 

 deep, compressed, the dorsal and ventral outlines similarly curved; 

 head small, conic, and compressed; mouth large, lower jaw project- 



