NOTES ON SOME FRESH-WATER FISHES FROM MAINE. 
363 
THE WHITE-FISHES OF MAINE. 
One species of white-fish has for many years been known to occur in certain 
Maine waters. Holmes mentions two species under the names of Cor eg onus albus 
and Coregonus (Argyrosomm) clupeiformis. The former the writer has decided must 
be the species formerly recognized as C. Icobradoricus , and the other doubtfully as 
C. quadrilateral is; but they are assigned to no particular locality. In the first report 
of the State Fish Commission, 1867-68, Mr. Charles Cl. Atkins, the commissioner, says, 
under the heading “White-fish ( Coregonus ),” page 25: 
Of this genus we possess at least one, and probably more than one, species. They occur princi- 
pally in the central, northern, and northeastern portions of the State. The species found abundantly 
on the St. John and its tributaries has been referred to the species C. albus, but we doubt whether that 
is correct. Whether or not our white-fish is identical with the famous white-fish of the Great Lakes, it 
certainly partakes of that excellence which is a characteristic of all the members of this genus. In 
the Fish River region, in Moosehead Lake, in Schoodic Grand, they pronounce the white-fish the best 
of fishes. Like nearly all the salmon family, to which they belong, they spawn in the autumn and 
seem to prefer running water. On the Schoodic they resort to Pocorapus and Grand lakes, where the 
water is flowing from 3 to 5 feet deep and the bottom sandy and gravelly. In November each year 
small quantities of them are taken here with the spear. One night Mr. B. W. French, of Calais, set a 
net 30 feet long at this thoroughfare, and in the morning had a barrel of white-fish. In Moosehead 
Lake they sometimes take the fly. In June last we saw one taken with a fly near Mount Kineo by 
Artemas Libby, esq., of Augusta. It Aveighed It pounds. Two trout weighing a pound each Avere 
taken at the same cast. They can be taken with the hook at any season of the year in deep water. 
Almost any bait will answer, but the best is 'a piece of small fish. The most of them are taken in 
Avinter. The greatest success is obtained by sinking through a hole in the ice, at the end of a line, a 
“cusk” thoroughly gashed with a knife. This remains there one day and tolls a great many white-fish 
around. They are then taken by smallest baits on small hooks. One Avinter many of these Moose- 
head Lake white-fish Avere sold in Augusta, and their Aveight Avas so uniformly one pound that they 
received the name of “pound fish,” and the trouble of Aveighing Avas dispensed Avith by the mutual 
consent of seller and buyer. 
The white-fish differs from most of its family in being nearly or quite destitute of teeth. Its 
mouth is small and tender. It has therefore none of the fierce predatory character of the trout and 
togue. It probably feeds mostly on small aquatic animals of A r arious kinds, such as insects, crustaceans, 
and mollusks, being guiltless of the death of any of its fellow-fishes. 
Several other annual reports of the State fish commission allude to these fish 
under the general name of “white-fish,” but give no localities besides those mentioned 
above by Atkins and nothing further indicating more than one species. 
For many years the common white-fish of Maine bore the name of Coregonus 
tabradorims , but a few years ago the well-known ichthyologist. Dr. Tarleton 11. Bean, 
announced the identity of this species with Coregonus clupeiformis , or the common 
Avhite-fish of the Great Lakes." Whatever changes the names may undergo, the fish 
remains the same for the table, unexcelled by any other fresh-water fish in Maine. 
During most of the year this species (the others, too, for that matter) affects 
the deep water of the lakes or streams. It is essentially a lake fish, but is found 
throughout the year in some fresh-water streams, probably having strayed from its 
lacustrine home over falls which were barriers to its return. In the lakes early in 
the evening and throughout twilight these fishes often appear at the surface to feed 
upon insects, and their “rises” may be seen everywhere at some distance from the 
shore. The white-fish rarely, if ever, leaps from the water, and his “AA r ake” is incon- 
Identity of common and Labrador white-fish. <Science, N. S., vol. ix, No. 220, March 17, 1899, 416. 
