Whitefish

a name given to a dozen or more species of fresh water fish. They are found chiefly in the lakes of the north temperate and Arctic zones. They are related to the salmon and trout. The common whitefish taken in the Great Lakes and vicinity attains a length of two feet. The back is olive tinted, the under parts white. It lives on snails, crayfish, insects, etc. The whitefishes seldom bite at a hook. They are caught by seines set near the shore or by gill nets set in deep water and weighted to the bottom. The taking of whitefish forms an important industry about the Great Lakes. They are packed in ice usually and sent to market fresh. They have been pursued so persistently even on their spawning grounds that the American catch has fallen off from 21,463,000 pounds in 1880 to 5,094,014 in the year of the last census. The Canadian take has suffered similarly. Every effort is being made by the fish commissioners of the general government and the several states to restock the lakes by hatching spawn in artificial fish hatcheries. See Fish; Trout; Salmon

White House. See Washington; D. C