690 ZOOLOGY FISHES. 



No epidemic causing sickness or destruction of life among the trout of 

 Utah and Panquitch Lakes has ever been known, nor is this fish ever 

 affected with parasites, as are many of the marine species. I must state, 

 however, that I have been informed by a trustworthy friend that the same 

 fish of the lakes in the Yellowstone region is uneatable in the summer ; its 

 flesh being riddled and filled with parasitic tape worms of considerable size, 

 many, according to Dr. Leidy, being five indies in length. Mr. Carrington, 

 whose notes accompanied the specimens examined by Dr. Leidy, states that 

 the smaller worms were contained in cysts adherent to the exterior of the 

 intestines, while the larger ones, up to six inches in length, were found 

 imbedded in the flesh. From five to fifty of the parasites were found in a 

 single fish. When numerous, they appeared to affect the health of their 

 host, and the fishes most infested could generally be told by their duller 

 color, meagerness, and less activity. Dr. Leidy states that this worm 

 belongs to the genus Bothriocephalus, or rather to that section of it now 

 named Dibotlirium. Two species have long been known as parasites of the 

 salmon and other members of the same genus of fishes in Europe ; but the 

 tape worm of the Yellowstone trout appears to be a different one, and may, 

 from the shape of its head, be named with propriety Dibothrium cordiceps. 



The trout of Utah Lake may be taken at nearly all seasons by both 

 hook and net at all times, but in Panquitch Lake by hook only, since fish- 

 ing in any other way is prohibited by common consent. This, however, is 

 no hardship, since large captures are easily made with the hook, I myself 

 having taken from thirty to forty pounds' weight in a single hour's fishing. 

 The hooks used are simply large steel ones, with a snood, or snell, of piano 

 wire, which is strong and flexible. The best bait is minnow and grass- 

 hopper, although this trout will bite at almost anything. In Panquitch 

 Lake, a fish's eye is considered a very tempting bait. The nets used in Utah 

 Lake are made of Nos. 9, 12, and 18 cotton twine, are generally four hundred 

 yards long, 8 to 10 feet deep, and are furnished with brails at each end; 

 when employed, they are reeled into the boats by means of a wooden wind- 

 lass in the stern. The average daily catch of one person with hook and 

 line would perhaps be twenty pounds, or about thirty-six hundred pounds 



