SALMONOID FISHES OF THE GREAT LAKES. 
II 
1.5 in length of head. Scales thin but firm. Dorsal short, rather high, its height 1.5 in head, the 
longest ray 3 times the shortest; adipose fin “rather slender,” reaching slightly beyond anal; pectoral 
long and pointed, not reaching nearly to ventrals; ventrals more than 0.66 length of head, falling much 
short of vent, the accessory scale short and triangular, not half length of fin; depth at vent 5.75 in 
body; caudal deeply forked; vent to base of caudal below, 4.6 times in length. 
Color, deep steel blue, becoming gradually paler below to lateral line, where it changes to silvery; 
scales above dotted with black, with traces of lines along rows of scales; vertical fins and tips of paired 
fins also thickly punctate; dark dots on skin of head. Length 9.5 inches. Said occasionally to reach 
a weight of 1.5 to 2 pounds. 
A single specimen from Lake Geneva was described a.t the same time as more slender; the depth 
5, the head 4.66 in length, and the eye 4 in head; maxillary 2.87 in head, the depth at the vent 6.75 in 
length, the distance from the vent to base of caudal below 4 times in length. Scales 77. 
The following account was given of the habits of the fish in Lake Tippecanoe by Judge Carpenter: 
Some years ago, probably five, these fish were discovered on the north side of Tippecanoe Lake 
by Isaac Johnson, and at each return of their spawning season, which is the last of November, they 
have reappeared in large numbers. They are not seen at any other season of the year, keeping them- 
selves in the deep water of the lakes. The general opinion is that they will not bite at a hook, but Mr. 
Johnson says that he has on one or two occasions caught them with a hook. To my knowledge they 
have never been found in but two of our lakes, Tippecanoe and Barber, which are both large lakes and 
close together, as will be seen by reference to the map. 
The spawning season lasts about two weeks and they come in myriads into the streams which 
enter the lakes. There are large numbers of persons who are engaged night and day taking them with 
small dip nets. They are caught in quantities that would surprise you, could you witness it. Those 
who live in the neighborhood put up large quantities of them, they being the only fish caught in the 
lakes that will bear salting. Some gentlemen who have been fishing to-day (Dec. 8) inform me that 
the run is abating and that in a few days the fishes will have taken their departure for the deep water 
of the lakes and will be seen no more until next November. 
We here present a description of a specimen in the U. S. National Museum, from Lake Geneva, 
with a figure taken from the same fish. It will be noticed that the differences already noted between 
Wisconsin and Indiana specimens do not hold in this case, and the same specific name must suffice for 
both. In the specimen before us the ventral seems to be placed farther forward than in the Michigan 
herring. This appearance is doubtless fallacious, due to the flabbiness of the fish after spawning and 
the now rather soft condition of the specimen. In life it would doubtless appear more elongate. 
Specimen from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Body length without caudal, 8 inches; head 4.33 in body; 
depth 4.33; length of caudal peduncle 2 in head, its depth 3.33; eye 4 in head; snout 4; interorbital 
space 3.66; maxillary measured from tip of snout 4; width of opercle 4 in head, subopercle 6.5; dorsal 
10; anal 12; scales 8-80-8, between occiput and dorsal 36; branchiostegals 10; gillrakers 18+32. 
Body elongate; dorsal and ventral outlines similar, nearly parallel in central third of body; caudal 
peduncle slender, long, little compressed; head moderate in size, pointed; dorsal outline straight; 
lower jaw longer than upper; maxillary extending under anterior edge of pupil; teeth on tongue only, 
very small and few; distance from snout to occiput more than twice in distance from occiput to dorsal. 
Scales thin, rather small, not varying much in size between anterior and posterior; lateral line 
straight, nearest to dorsal contour. 
Dorsal inserted slightly nearer cdudal than tip of snout, its ray 1.66 in head (specimen mutilated, 
probably slightly longer); adipose from insertion to tip contained 4 in head, its height 10; anal trun- 
cate, its longest ray 2.75 in head; ventral insertion below first rays of dorsal; length 1.66 in head, its 
scale 2.33 in ventral length; pectoral short, 2.33 in distance between pectoral and ventral bases; 
caudal deeply forked. 
Color in spirits light, darker above, silvery on sides from slightly above lateral line, colorless ven- 
trally; all fins colorless (as far as can be seen in the poor state of specimen). 
We have also received three fine specimens of the Indiana cisco, from Lake James, Steuben County, 
Ind., through the courtesy of Willis S. Blatchley, state geologist of Indiana. These specimens agree 
with the preceding accounts and we are quite unable to see that they differ in any regard whatever from 
examples of huronius from Port Huron. The adipose fin varies somewhat, but in all it is a little 
