186 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



We found trout in Pacific Creek at every point where we ex- 

 amined it. In Two-Ocean Pass we obtained specimens from each 

 of the streams, and in such positions as would have permitted 

 them to pass easily from one side of the divide to the other. "We 

 also caught trout in Atlantic Creek below the pass, and in the 

 upper Yellowstone, where they were abundant. 



Thus it is certain that there is no obstruction even in dry 

 weather to prevent the passage of trout from the Snake River to 

 Yellowstone Lake ; it is quite evident that trout do pass over in 

 this way ; and it is almost absolutely certain that Yellowstone 

 Lake was stocked with trout from the west, via Two- Ocean Pass. 



From the basin of Snake River above Shoshone Falls we 

 know at least twelve different species of fishes, but of all these 

 the trout is the only one which has been able to pass over the 

 Continental Divide and establish itself in Yellowstone Lake and 

 its tributary streams, for no other species is known from those 

 waters. But these twelve species are, as a rule, fishes of interme- 

 diate altitudes, rarely ascending into streams so cold as Pacific 

 Creek. The only one which accompanies the trout into Pacific 

 Creek is the blob (Cottus bairdi punctulatus), which we found even 

 in Two-Ocean Pass, but it has never been seen on the Yellowstone 

 side of the pass. 



--* 



THE DECLINE IN RAILWAY CHARGES. 



Bt II. T. NEWCOMB. 



THE efficiency of any general system of transportation neces- 

 sarily depends upon its safety, speed, and cost, and of these 

 the last is clearly of paramount importance, for, unless charges 

 can be made sufficiently moderate, no means of transportation can 

 be generally available to the public, even though it possesses in 

 the highest degree each of the other qualities. The superiority 

 of railways as a means of moving passengers and freight be- 

 tween localities not connected by natural waterways lies pri- 

 marily in the fact that they furnish transportation at a cost so 

 low when compared with all other means of transportation that 

 even the highest railway charges are relatively insignificant. 



Competent authority has stated that, under the best methods 

 of transportation over ordinary highways, wheat, the most valu- 

 able of cereal products, would bear transportation only two hun- 

 dred and fifty miles to markets where it would sell for a dollar 

 and a half per bushel, and that the market for corn at seventy- 

 five cents per bushel must be within a radius of a hundred and 

 fifty miles from the point of production. To-day, both of these 

 products are carried from the great surplus- producing regions 



