'/ 



2,9 



of Commissioner McDonald to give to each drainage basin a differ- 

 ent kind of trout. If these trout do well, and there can be litde 

 doubt that they will thrive, the Park will become the most attractive 



trout-preserve in the world. 



In the largest stream in the Park, the Yellowstone, trout exist in 

 abundance, both above, below and between the fells. Above the 

 falls in the river, and in Yellowstone Lake, no other species of fish 



are found. 



The reasofi for this anomaly of distribution is to be found in the 

 character of the Continental Divide at the head of the Yellowstone. 

 At a point called "Two-Ocean Pass," Atlantic Creek, a tribu- 

 tary of the Yellowstone and Pacific Creek, a tributary of the 

 Snake River, come within less than a quarter of a mile of each 

 other. This interspace, the " Two-Ocean Pass," is occupied by 

 marshy meadow, which is covered with water for a time In the 

 spring. Across this pass the trout of the Upper Yellowstone must 

 have come. As no fish except trout ascend Pacific Creek from 

 Snake River, it is natural that no other species should be in the 

 Upper Yellowstone River or in the Lake. 



There is good evidence that the interval between the two falls of 

 the Yellowstone has been stocked by fish from above. Whether the 

 Lower Yellowstone, with the Madison River and other tributaries 

 of the Missouri were stocked through Two-Ocean Pass, is an unset- 

 tled question. Few, if any, trout could go safely over the lower fall 

 of the Yellowstone (about 300 feet). 



In a stream called Lava Creek, w^hich flows into Gardiner River, 

 a tributary of the Yellowstone, a few trout have been seen above its 

 waterfall. We find that one of the branches of Lava Creek heads 

 in the same depression with one of the forks of the stream next east 

 of it, the Black-tail Deer Creek. The Black- tail Deer flows into the 

 Yellowstone without a waterfall, and it is well stocked with trout. 

 The watershed between the two streams is at one place reduced to 

 about three rods of meadow, elevated less than two feet above the 

 bed of the tributary of Lava Creek. 



In the spring this meadow must form a continuous pond through 

 which fish can cross from one stream to another. 



In the Gibbon River, above the high fall which is wholly impassa- 

 ble to fishes, the " Blob," or " Miller's Thumb," a little-bottom fish, 

 is very abundant. This fish is especially fond of ascending springs, 



