GREAT LAKES COREGONIDS 



543 



shoals to spawn. There are no good whitefish areas on the American shore, though 

 a few fish are taken regularly at the eastern end of the lake. In the east (Sandy 

 Pond, Selkirk) the fish behave as along the north shore, except that the fishermen 

 do not find them so early. Whitefishing does not begin here until the last of May 

 or early June, possibly because the New York laws have prohibited fishing within 

 1 mile from shore, within which zone the fish may occur until this date; though it 

 would appear that if this were the case some, at least, would be taken farther out, 

 whither occasional storms would drive them. Along other points on the New York 

 shore (Oswego, Sodus Point, Wilson) whitefish are relatively scarce and of irregular 

 occurrence. 



BREEDING HABITS 



The time of spawning is said to be November, usually the latter part, continuing 

 sometimes into early December. Specimens collected at Port Hope, Ontario, on 

 November 21, 1917, were nearly ready to spawn. 



The best spawning grounds on the lake are in the Bay of Quinte, into which the 

 spawning fish are said to move from the main lake through the Upper Gap. There 

 are also smaller spawning grounds in other parts of the lake, especially along the 

 north shore. Known spawning grounds along the south shore are rare and for the 

 most part have been deserted by the fish latterly (Oak Orchard, Nine-Mile Point). 

 The bottom selected for spawning, the fishermen say, is hard, as in the other lakes, 

 and may be covered by depths of 15 fathoms. Nothing is known of their spawning 

 behavior, except that at Brighton the Quick brothers say the larger fish spawn first. 



In some sections the fish appear to mature at small size. The Quick brothers 

 report that fish weighing 2 pounds in the round usually spawn, and that they have 

 seen spawners as small even as 1 pound. Specimens weighing 1 pound in the round, 

 collected in June, 1921, from the Duck Islands, showed no indication of spawning that 

 'year, but males taken on August 27, 1923, off Sandy Pond, N. Y., were mature at 1 

 pound 7 ounces. 



ABUNDANCE 



On the American shore the whitefish is almost extinct commercially. From 

 1,064,000 pounds in 1880 the production had fallen to 54,000 pounds in 1922, with no 

 records in excess of 88,000 pounds in the present century. Across the boundary the 

 catch of whitefish has shown a general increase from 1910, which reached its peak 

 only in 1922, when 2,098,000 pounds were reported. The production has been main- 

 tained only by an unproportional increase in the quantity of fishing apparatus and has 

 been stimulated by the ever-mounting prices that the markets offer. In most areas 

 on the lake the fishermen believe the whitefish to have become commoner within 

 the last 25 years, and in most ports the species is believed to be holding its own at 

 present. 



Genus PROSOPIUM Milner 



Milner, in Jordan, 1878, p. 361 (Coregonus quadr Hater alis) . 



The Great Lakes fish of the genus are never larger than 5 and usually not more 

 than 2 pounds in weight. The body is subterete, its width equal to about 56 to 68 

 per cent of its depth. The premaxillaries are wider than long and retrorse in position. 



