VEND ACE. 
897 
stein. When Krcyer wrote his Danmarks Fislce, he 
knew nothing of its presence in Denmark, but in 1868 
he received it from Foussingo So near Renders, and 
in the following year Feddeesen received it from Jul 
So, another of the Jutland lakes. At about the same 
date it is said to have been met with in Ulse So and 
Sothorup So (Zealand). In South Germany, France, 
Belgium, and Holland it is unknown. 
The Vendace is no true marine fish , but it occurs 
in fairly great number in the island-belts of the Gulfs 
of Bothnia and Finland, at least to the islands of So- 
dermanland, where it cannot be reckoned, however, 
according' to Ekstrom, among the common fishes. 
The Vendace is thus found in very different pla- 
ces, both in brackish water and in fresh. It lives in 
lakes large and small, deep and comparatively shallow. 
At certain times it repairs to running water. It is a 
gregarious fish, and is consequently taken at times in 
great quantities, while it also supplies food to several 
large fishes-of-prey. Out of the water it is not tena- 
cious of life, but, if treated with care and furnished 
with cool water, it may be kept alive long enough in 
aquaria". To wind and weather it is very sensitive. 
Excessive heat or cold drives it to deep wafer; and in 
stormy weather it takes refuge under the lee of the 
land. In spring it roves about in more scattered com- 
panies. In summer it shoals in the lakes during July 
and August, making its way in large armies towards 
the surface and into shallow water, to seek its food, 
which consists principally of Entomostraca , insects, and 
small mollusks. During autumn and still later in the 
year it spawns, its active movements at the surface 
rendering it easy of observation. In the Norrstrom at 
Stockholm numbers of small Vendace are taken in 
spring with hoop-nets below the bridge of Norrbro; but 
in autumn the larger Vendace are caught in traps just 
above the bridge. The end of September and the be- 
ginning of October is the best season for the last- 
mentioned fishery. Two traps ( ryssjor ) have been 
set, one in 2 feet of water, the other in 3, with the 
tail end fastened to a stake, so that the current keeps 
the trap straight, with the mouth down the stream. 
The fisherman who has employed these traps for many 
years declares that the V endace always follow the same 
course, going hardly a foot or two to the right or left. 
The Vendace swim up the stream only when the water 
runs from Lake Malar to the sea, especially tvhen there 
is rather a strong current; yet it sometimes happens, 
though usually only one or two days a year, that a 
single day’s take in these traps may amount to 190 
kilo, of Vendace, averaging about 5 or 6 to the kilo- 
gramme, which fetches at first hand 50 — 70 ore (6 3 / 4 - — 
9V 2 d.). The Vendace are then on the way to their 
spawning- place. “In the inner island-belt,’’ writes Sux- 
devall, “oft' Vaxholm for example, the Vendace is 
taken both in summer and autumn, but does not seem 
to go far out. On one occasion 90 lispund (765 kilo.) 
had been secured at a single haul of the seine off Fors- 
vik (Ingaro) in the month of November; otherwise it is 
only seldom that a few specimens are caught there.” 
From Sodermanland Ekstrom states that, in the month 
of December or about the time when the lakes freeze, 
the Vendace resorts to shallower water, where it spawns 
on a stony or sandy bottom, the spawning seeming, 
however, to be of long duration, for Vendace not quite 
spent are caught with ice-seines in the middle of Ja- 
nuary. In the Government of Norrbotten, according 
to Widegren, the spawning-season of the Vendace be- 
gins at the middle of October. “It then makes its way 
6 — 12 miles up the mountain streams, and deposits its 
roe on a. stony or sandy bottom. Off the town of 
Lulea the Vendace enters the bays and creeks at the 
middle of October, and spawns on a muddy bottom in 
2 — 6 fathoms of water. Off Muonioniska Village the 
spawning takes place at the end of November.” In 
Lake Wener Widegren found that the Vendace spawns 
from the end of October in 10 fathoms of water, re- 
sorting chiefly to the shallows among the islands round 
Luro and Kallandso. In Lake Wetter, on the same 
authority, it breeds about the 24th of October near the 
bottom and at a depth of 60 fathoms. “The greatest 
number spawn,” he says, “in deep water along the east 
coast from Grenna to the island of Jungfru. The shoals 
first met with at the spawning-places consist exclusively 
of males. This would seem to be the case with the 
true Gwyniads as well, for those first taken are always 
males. After the spawning, which ends at the middle 
of December, no more Vendace are taken in deep water, 
though they probably pass the whole winter in the 
depths. Early in spring they seem to have migrated 
to the extreme south of the lake, and are never found 
in very deep water, but remain throughout the sum- 
We have kept large Vendace alive for a fortnight in a glass jar filled with the ordinary water supplied by the Stockholm Waterworks. 
