6-7 EDWARD VII. 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 22a 



A. 1907 



]srOTES ON THE FISHES OF CANSO. 



BY GEORGE A. CORNISH, B.A., TORONTO. 



Science Master in the Collegiate Institute, Lindsay, Ontario. 



The following notes refer to specimens of fishes collected and determined at the 

 Marine Biological Station during July and August in the two seasons of 1901 and 1902. 

 In nomenclature and classification Drs. Jordan and Evermann's ' Fishes of North and 

 Middle America ' has provided the authority followed. The specimens, it may be 

 added, were collected mainly during the trips of the fishing steamer Active, operated 

 by the Messrs. Whitman, of Canso, or were obtained along the shore, or in shallow 

 water about the wharfs of the harbour, or in the areas thickly overgrown with eel- 

 grass, adjacent to the laboratory. I visited several times each week the traps set for 

 mackerel and squid in water about six fathoms in depth quite close to the land. The 

 Active furnished most specimens, secured during her daily fishing trips, a few miles 

 from the harbour, where trawls of hooks were set for cod and haddock. For about a 

 month during 1901 the beam-trawl was used in Chedabucto Bay at a depth of 18 to 20 

 fathoms, with most noteworthy success. A few fish were kindly brought by some of 

 the local fishermen from the ' Banks ' and by some of the deep-sea fishermen who fish 

 in small boats with handlines or with long lines of hooks known as ' trawls.' I cannot 

 refrain from making special reference to the willing aid of Mr. C. H. Whitman, who 

 most kindly compiled statistics regarding the local ' takes ' of certain fishes of which I 

 have made use, as well as for much other assistance during the whole course of the 

 work of eollecting specimens. 



family: galeid^. 



1. Prionace glauca (Linnaeus). — This species, called in the locality of Canso the 

 ^ Blue Dog,' is very common in the adjacent waters, and is reported by the cod fisher- 

 men to be extremely plentiful on the ' Banks.' Two specimens which I measured were 

 1,423 mm. and 1,437 mm. respectively from the tip of the snout to the concavity of the 

 tail. In one there were three gills upon one side atrophied. They are stated to die upon 

 the trawl hook more quickly than the cod or the picked dog-fish {Squalus acanthias), 

 so that they are rarely brought on deck alive. The fishermen think that when they take 

 the hook they are unable to close the mouth,, and thus drown. I have seen one come 

 to the surface when out fishing with the hook trawl, and after it had snapped oil a cod- 

 fish from the trawl it would circle round, with its dorsal fin exposed, and rapidly gather 

 up the fragments, an occurrence which I am informed is very common on the fishing 

 grounds. An examination of the stomach showed a few shrimps only, and in the longi- 

 tudinal spiral valve were many specimens of a tape-worm. 



family: SQUALIDiE. 



2. Sqwalus acanthias, Linnaeus. — This is an extremely common species, and often 

 a great nuisance to the fishermen fishing with trawls of baited hooks. I have known 

 gear with 700 hooks to have 690 of these dog-fish upon it. No use is generally made of 

 these fish ; they are difficult to release from the hooks, and they generally snap off 



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