MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
175 
NOTES ON THE FISH OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN. 
T. L. HANKINSON. 
The notes given in this paper are based chiefly upon some fishes taken 
during two visits which I made to Hillsdale County, Michigan. One 
visit was from August 28 to September 11, 1900, and one from August 
28 to September 4, 1902. In this work I was making no attempt to 
get a representative collection of the fish of the region, but I was simply 
looking for forms new to me. No pretentions are thus made for this 
paper to give a list, which approaches completeness, of the fish in the 
vicinity of Hillsdale. Most of the specimens collected were taken to 
Cornell University, where I identified them with some assistance from 
Mr. H. D Reed, under whose direction I was then doing special work 
in ichthyology. During some ten years of residence in Hillsdale, prior 
to the time when the first of the above-mentioned collections was made, 
I took many fishing trips in the region, and although my aims were not 
of a scientific nature, I obtained some general information about the 
fish of the region; and such of the facts so obtained, that I think may 
have some value, are here recorded. 
The collections referred to were made from the following named 
bodies of water: Bawbeese lake, King lake. Stock’s mill pond, outlet 
of King lake, Beebe creek, a small pasture brook in the south part of 
Hillsdale, and a stream near Allen. Only a small part of any one of 
these regions was fished. A dip net and a small eight-foot minnow seine 
was the collecting apparatus used in the streams. In the lakes, the 
hook and line method was the only one employed, except at Bawbeese 
lake, where some dip net and minnow seine fishing was done in shallow 
water near shore. A brief description of each of the more important 
localities, mentioned above, is here given. 
Bawbeese lake. This is located about one and one-half miles southeast 
of Hillsdale. It is a system of about five lakes. The north one is the 
largest, and is the one in which most of my lake fishing was done. It 
is a little over a mile long and about three-quarters of a mile wide. It 
has many shoals, chiefly on its east side, which have for the most part, 
hard, sandy bottoms. Its greatest depth is said to be about ninety feet. 
The water is clear and pure, and is used to supply the city of Hillsdale. 
The outlet leaves the lake near its north end, and flows in a north¬ 
westerly direction through the center of the city of Hillsdale and on 
toward Jonesville. Residents of Hillsdale tell me that this stream is 
a tributary of the St. Joseph river which enters Lake Michigan. 
Stock’s mill pond. This pond was formed by damming the outlet of 
Bawbeese lake. It is located in the southeast part of Hillsdale near the 
fair grounds. It is about one-half mile in length, rather shallow, with a 
depth perhaps not greater than fifteen or twenty feet, and in the sum¬ 
mer it has an abundance of aquatic vegetation. 
