NOTES ON TWO AMERICAN WHITEFISHES. 
13 
Inquiries as to the circumstances of the origin of this fishery in Lake Ontario 
have elicited the information that it was only at a comparatively recent date that the 
fish assumed commercial importance, and in most hshing ceuters it has been known 
only a few years. When the common whitehsh was sufficiently abundant in the more 
accessible portions of the lake, there was little occasion for the fishermen to undergo 
the additional labor and time required to set their nets in the deei>er water, and con- 
sequently the species under discussion was very rarely caught; but the continued 
scarcity of Coregonus clupeiformis brought Coregonus prognathus into gradually 
increasing j)rominence, and at the present time it is an important food-fish at almost 
every fishing center on the lake, and in 1891 the catch was probably the largest ever 
made. 
Mr. Strowger, who has been familiar with the lake fishes for a great many years, 
says that long-jaws were not Ashed for in the vicinity of Nine-mile Point until some 
time after the civil war. An old fisherman, however, informed him that prior to that 
time he occasionally took a specimen while fishing for regular whitehsh. 
The following local newspaper account of the discovery of “a new kind of hsh” 
rehects the current opinion of the hshermen in the western end of the lake, and is 
additionally interesting because of the information conveyed: 
Gill nets were recently set in 40 latlioms of water 10 miles out from Charlotte in Lake Ontario, 
with the expectation of taking trout. When they were taken up they were tilled with whiteflsh; not 
a trout was found in them. This was a great surprise, especiallj'' as the whiteflsh were of a variety 
called “long-jaws,” which had never before been caught in considerable numbers in Lake Ontario. 
Those Avhich had been taken in this lake before were small, not larger than herring, and nobody 
seems to have suspected that “long-jaws,” like these, weighing from 2 to 5 i^onnds each, were to be 
found in these waters. Seth Green thinks that none of these flsh have ever been planted in Lake 
Ontario. There are two kinds of deeji-water whiteflsh, the “long-jaws” and the “black tins,” but 
ouly the former has been fouud thus far. Of these, great numbers are caught, an average “ lift ” being 
about 800 pounds. The flsh are packed and shipped to New York, Ruflalo, and other cities besides 
Rochester, and readily find sale, the demand for them being so great that difficulty is found in supply- 
ing the dealers. — (Journal, Lockport, N. Y., November 22, 1887.) 
At WilsoB, the principal hsliiug center west of the Genesee River, the hsh have 
been known only ten years. In the fall of 1882 they made their appearance, and 
some were then taken by Wilson hshermen. Shortly afterward the hshery became 
regularly established and is now quite extensive and important. 
It would seem that the principal factor in the inauguration of the hshery for long- 
jaw whitehsh was the iironounced diminution in the supiily of common whitehsh, which 
made it necessary for the hshermen to resort to now grounds in hope of hnding that 
hsh. The more or less experimental setting of gill nets in the deeper water resulted 
in making the existence of the long-jaw more generally known. 
In Lake Michigan this hsh is found in the dee])er water of the southern two-thirds 
of the lake, and is taken in considerable numbers in gill nets, in conjunction with 
lake trout, chiehy by the steam tugs operating long lines of netting in deep water. 
It is usually distinguished by the hshermen from the lake herriug or cisco. 
