THE GRAYLINGS . 
487 
matter, and covered with a forest of pines, generally the Norway pine, 
Pinus resinosa , Linn., growing in grand dimensions, the long, limbless 
shafts making wide boards, free from knots, yet but little utilized, while 
immense forests of the favorite lumber material, white pine, Pinus strobits, 
are yet uncut. From this plateau arise several large streams and rivers, 
flowing each way into Lakes Huron and Michigan. Among these are 
three rivers of note, the Muskegon, the Manistee, emptying into Lake 
Michigan, and the Ausable, entering into Lake Huron. Among the minor 
streams are the Cheboygan, Thunder Bay, and Rifle, tributary to Lake 
Huron, and the Jordan, empyting through Pine Lake into the Traverse 
Bays of Lake Michigan. A few branches and streams, spring-fed, are 
formed, in which the water has a uniform degree of coldness throughout 
the summer, seldom rising above 52 0 . The rivers Rifle, Ausable, Jordan, 
Mersey, branch of the Muskegon, and the headwaters of Manistee, all have 
this character, and in all of these, and only in this limited locality, 
short of the Yellowstone region, is found the already famous Michigan 
Grayling.” 
The town of Grayling, Mich., formerly called Crawford, is in the 
midst of this district, and the headquarters of Grayling fishermen. The 
Grayling is said to live also in Portage Lake, in the extreme northern part 
of the State. These streams seem to be remarkably cold, being fed by 
numerous springs. Milner found the Ausable to vary between 45 0 and 49 0 
morning and evening, in September; and Mr. Fitzhugh has remarked that 
the south branch of this river, which rises in a swampy lake, contains no 
Grayling except near its mouth, where its volume is swelled by large springs, 
and its water becomes clear and cold. 
The Grayling of Europe, Thymallus vulgaris , is also restricted to cold 
streams, and appears to be found within limited areas. It is found in 
Norway, Sweden, Lapland, and the Oreades, in Switzerland and Hungary, 
and southward to lakes Constance and Leman, in Bavaria. A Grayling, 
possibly of different species, occurs in Lake Maggiore, and others have 
been recognized from Russia and Siberia. It is constantly being discov¬ 
ered in new localities. In England the species was formerly known as 
the “ Umber.” “ And in this river be Umbers, otherwise called Grad¬ 
ings,” wrote Holinshed, in “The Description of Britaine,” A. D. 1577. 
The German name, “ Aesche,” has been thought to refer, like “Grayling,” 
to its color. The European and American fishes are so similar that only 
a trained ichthyologist can distinguish them, and their habits are very 
much the same. Our Grayling spawns in April in the Ausable, that of 
