158 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by George Shiras, 3d 



LARGE BULL MOOSE AT A SALT SPRING ON ST. IGNACE ISLAND 



The saline waters came from beneath a red sandstone stratum a few hundred yards behind 



the camp (see page 188). 



are interested in maintaining a bountiful 

 supply of fish, high in quality and rea- 

 sonable in price, justifying their support 

 of an effort now being made to rehabili- 

 tate the fisheries of the Great Lakes. 



The recent introduction of the steel- 

 head salmon has added another fine and 

 adaptable fish, which, spawning in the 

 spring, can utilize the streams for this 

 purpose, and when unoccupied by the 

 brooding trout in the fall. 



THE SPECKLED TROUT IN DANGER OP 

 EXTERMINATION 



The species found in Lake Superior 

 are limited in number, for the depth and 

 purity of its water and the low tempera- 

 ture throughout the year have barred the 

 coarser and less desirable kinds. 



At one time the speckled trout, the 

 lake, or so-called Mackinaw, trout, and 

 the whitefish were present in extraordi- 

 nary numbers, each occupying a some- 

 what different portion of the lake, ac- 

 cording to the depth and character of the 



water, and all living in comparative har- 

 mony. The speckled trout depended upon 

 minnows, insects, and crustaceans near 

 the shore, the lake trout had an ample 

 supply of herring, while the whitefish, a 

 bottom feeder, in nowise interfered with 

 the others. 



There was a hardly appreciable decline 

 in the speckled trout during the fifty 

 years herein recorded, until it was un- 

 fortunately discovered, that during the 

 month of August all the trout living in 

 the lake congregated in particular streams 

 for spawning, and these localities were 

 then visited by an increasing number, 

 some fishermen taking in a single day a 

 hundred pounds of sluggish and inactive 

 fish and often salting down the surplus 

 for winter use. 



In this onslaught others reluctantly 

 joined; for, as the fishing became poorer 

 each season in the open waters, they 

 yielded on the theory that if the end were 

 approaching, one might as well have a 

 share in the final distribution. 



