Historic Diaries: James Doty, 1820
June 10, 1820: Schoolcraft, on the Fish at Mackinac
Editor's Note:
The whitefish of the upper Great Lakes had long been a staple for the Ojibwe, Ottawa, and other native nations who resided there. As Schoolcraft points out, earlier travelers also praised its virtues.
Books by the 17th-century French writers to whom he refers are online elsewhere on the Society Web site, Lahontan here and Charlevoix here.
Location: Mackinac Island, Mich.
[Doty did not write in his journal again this day. Schoolcraft turned his attention to the fish of the vicinity:]
Few persons have visited this Island without being struck with the variety and the delicacy of the fish, which are caught in the vicinity. Among them we see two species of trout, the lake herring, black and white bass, sturgeon, mosquenonge [muskellunge], white fish (ticamang of the Indians), pike, gar, perch, and catfish, with several other species of cartilaginous, and shell fish.
Of these the white fish is most esteemed for the richness and delicacy of its flavour, and there is a universal acquiescence in the opinion formerly advanced by Charlevoix, "that whether fresh or salted, nothing of the fish kind, can excel it." We cannot, however, agree with the Baron La Hontan in the remark "that it has one singular property, namely, that all sorts of sauces spoil it." This fine fish is very abundant around the island, and is taken with the hook and line. It has not heretofore been described in ichthyological works…
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