SPAWNING OF THE WHITE-PISH. 517 



season they come in from deeper water in vast schools, and are taken in large quantities by the 

 nets. A notion, prevalent among the fishermen in some localities, that the female fishes arrived 

 first, and were followed, a few days later, by the male, was not confirmed by my observation. The 

 bottoms on the spawning grounds vary in character in different localities; rock, sand, clay, and 

 mud being used indifferently for the spawning beds. The depths at which they spawn range from 

 eight feet to fifteen fathoms; the larger number probably spawning in depths of about eight or 

 ten fathoms. In the Sault Ste. Marie Iliver, and in the Detroit Eiver, in the fall of the year, they 

 congregate in great numbers, for the purpose of spawning. In a number of rivers emptying into 

 Green Bay the White-fish was formerly taken in abundance in the spawning season. Saw-mills 

 are numerous on all of these streams at the present day, and the great quantity of sawdust in 

 the streams is offensive to the fish, and has caused them to abandon them. In one or two rivers 

 of the north shore of Lake Michigan they are still found in the autumn. 



"The Michipicoten Eiver of Lake Superior, on the authority of Major Long, who commanded an 

 expedition to this region in 1823, and George Barnston, esq., of Montreal, Canada, formerly of the 

 Hudson Bay Company, is a favorite spawning ground of the White fish. The Nepigon Eiver, 

 which our steamer entered while returning from the north shore of Lake Superior, about the 

 middle of October, was said to contain schools of White-fish, which had probably entered the 

 river for the purpose of spawning. 



"There is a probability that there was a time when the White-fish ascended many of the clear 

 rivers of the Northern Lakes, though that this was a universal habit is not probable, at any rate 

 since the white man has been in the country. 



"The fishermen, with their gill-nets, follow inshore the migration of the White-fish in the 

 month of October, and a few days before the middle of November the spawn is ripe in a few fishes, 

 and by the middle of the month is running freely, so that boats and nets are covered with the 

 spawn and milt. Just at the time the ova are beginning to ripen, the Lake Trout, Salmo namay- 

 eush, has finished spawning, and is leaving for deep water. The White-fish continue to spawn 

 until the last week of November or the first week of December, when they, too, leave the shore 

 and seek deeper water. 



" In the Detroit Eiver, where there were fine opportunities for observing the fish at this period, 

 owing to the advantages afforded by Mr. George Clark, of Ecorse, we found that the fish ascended 

 the river about the last week of September, usually following the same course among the islands 

 year after year. Mr. Clark's observations on the migration of the White-fishes had discovered 

 that they ascended much farther years ago than they do now. They are still taken as high up as 

 Cottrelville, twelve miles up the Saint Clair Eiver. None have been caught above this point for 

 many years. It is a singular fact that the White-fish are not known to descend from Lake Huron 

 into the Saint Clair Eiver. This is established by abundant evidence from continued fishing at 

 Fort Gratiot, where Mr. Clark, between the years 1830 and 1842, took large quantities of the wall- 

 eyed pike, Stizostedion americana, taking frequently one thousand barrels in a year. The catch of 

 White-fish amounted to an occasional supply for his own table, except after long-continued storms 

 from the northward, when the fish sometimes entered the river in schools. They were never found 

 in this portion of the river in the spawning season. 



"The same fact is claimed by the Indians in the Sault" Ste. Marie Eiver, that the White- 

 fishes of the lake above never descend the rapids, while the White-fishes of the river, it is also 

 asserted, never ascend to Lake Superior. There is not as good evidence for the truth in this 

 locality as at Port Gratiot; still, it may be the case. 



