206 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
From the table it will be seen that for fifteen years the average number of young 
whitefish liberated annually in the waters of the lake has been 5,763,000, or about 890 
fry to the square mile of lake surface. It must be apparent to fish-culturists and 
economists that if artificial stocking is to have any perceptible effect in increasing 
whitefish in Lake Ontario more generous plants will have to be made, and this can 
only come about by establishing hatching stations on or conveniently near the lake. 
The recent action of Congress in providing for the location of a hatchery in this region 
is a step of great importance to the fisheries of the lake, and similar legislation is 
looked for on the part of the State of New York, whose interests in this matter are 
very great. With the establishment of a station of design similar to the hatchery of 
the Michigan commission at Detroit or that of the Government at Put-in-Bay, Ohio, 
each, of which has a capacity for hatching 150,000,000 to 200,000,000 whitefish eggs 
annually, it is thought that only a few years will have elapsed before the abundance 
of whitefish in Lake Ontario will be satisfactorily and materially increased. 
THE LESSER WHITEFISHES. 
Lake Ontario is included within the range of a number of other species of Coregoni 
which have been appropriately designated the “ lesser whitefishes.” It is probable 
that four of these occur in the lake. These are the lake herring or cisco (C. artedi ); 
the moon-eye, or Hoy’s whitefish ( C. lioyi ) ; the menominee or round whitefish ( C. 
quadrilateralis ), and the mongrel whitefish, or tullibee ( C . tullibee). The cisco is such 
a common and well-known fish that no special study was necessary; two of the others 
Avere not observed, and, in the limited time available for the investigation, it was not 
possible satisfactorily to identify all the fish by the numerous names applied by the 
fishermen in the various parts of the lake. 
The lake herring is usually known as the cisco throughout Lake Ontario. The 
name herring is also in use, and the designation u greenback ” was heard in Wayne 
County, to which, it appears to be restricted. 
The cisco is a very abundant fish in the waters of Lake Ontario, where it ranks 
as one of the most important economic species, although it is less numerous than 
formerly. The principal fisheries at present are in Jefferson County, gill nets being 
the apparatus chiefly used. The fish come to the shores in the fall and winter to 
spawn, and it is at that time that the most fishing is done. 
Since the bloater whitefish has assumed commercial importance the abundance 
of ciscoes appears to have been considerably reduced at many fishing centers on the 
American shore; and in some communities in which they formerly constituted the 
principal part of the catch they are now taken in only one-tenth the quantity that 
bloaters are. This, for example, is the case at Wilson, New York. 
The average weight of the cisco of Lake Ontario is three-quarters of a pound. 
Examples weighing 3 to 3£ pounds are not rare. Tlie largest individuals taken weigh 
about 44 pounds, but fish of such size are only occasionally obtained. 
The cisco belongs to that group of whitefishes chiefly characterized by a pro- 
jecting lower jaw, a feature which produces a larger mouth, which in turn indicates a 
greater range of food than is possessed by the common whitefish. In addition, there- 
fore, to feeding on minute organisms, such as form the pabulum of the whitefish, the 
cisco takes small fish. In the summer of 1891 an Oswego fisherman speared a 3-pound 
