210 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
BAIT FISHES. 
With a view to protect the game fish, laws have been enacted in New York re- 
stricting the means of capture to hook and line in the St. Lawrence Eiver and within 
a certain distance of the shore in Lake Ontario. The use of small-meslied seines to 
supply bait minnows for angling is permitted, and enormous quantities of minnows are 
thus annually consumed. In the river and at the numerous fishing resorts on the lake 
more than 100 men and boys give more or less exclusive attention to seining minnows 
during the angling season, and generally secure handsome returns, the ruling prices 
for minnows being from £ cent to 2 cents each. 
The yearly drain on the minnows is not without its results, especially in the St. 
Lawrence River, where the supply is said to have been much diminished in 1891, and 
minnow fishermen in the vicinity of Alexandria Bay were often obliged to go in their 
boats a distance of 20 miles to Lake Ontario to find sufficient quantities of small fish, 
although at one time all the bait consumed in the river was caught locally. 
Careful estimates, based on information furnished by bait-dealers and others, show 
the number of minnows caught for bait in 1891 in Lake Ontario and its tributaries 
and in the St. Lawrence River to have been not less than 9,000,000, including those 
which died before being used and were thus sacrificed. The mortality is very large. 
Besides the minnows, so called, used for bait, considerable destruction of imma- 
ture fish occurs. Young fish of almost every species are naturally taken in the seines, 
and are classed as “minnows” or “bait” by the dealers. Unfortunately, small whitefish 
are not exempt, and in the vicinity of Fox Island, where whitefish formerly spawned 
in great numbers and where the young now appear to congregate at times, considerable 
quantities are sometimes taken for bait; these are from 1£ to 3 inches long. Small 
trout, bass, pike, and herring are also used whenever they happen to be taken. 
This matter is not without its practical bearing on the question of food and food 
supply of the piscivorous fishes and the following list of bait minnows is offered as a 
fragmentary contribution to the subject. The species mentioned were obtained from 
bait fishermen in various localities on the southern shore of Lake Ontario. The list 
could of course be greatly extended by a special investigation ; as it stands, it simply 
represents the personal observations incidentally made by the writer. The local names 
applied to the fish, so far as heard, are given in quotation marks. 
1. Catostomus teres (Mitchill). Common sucker; “Mullet.” 
This is a well-known fish in Lake Ontario, and is often used for food. It attains a 
length of 18 inches. When of small size it is frequently employed as a bait. Six speci- 
mens, about If inches in length, were obtained from minnow fishermen. 
2. Campostoma anomalum (Rafinesque). Stone-roller; Stone-lugger. 
Four specimens of this interesting species were preserved, the largest of which 
was 2§ inches, the smallest If inches. These differ much in color from more mature, 
examples. The upper parts are of a dark-brownish color, with faint mottlings; the 
under parts are white. A blackish lateral band about width of eye extends the entire 
length of body and appears as a bar on the snout; above the dark band is a narrower 
light one. 
