BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 11 



biccders observe that these eggs are so very large that they indeed 

 had believed them to be lake-trout eggs. 



A. — There is, properly speaking, bat one kind of Salvelinus fontvnalis, 

 but they vary very much in quality. For example, the small fish of the 

 small, high rivulets, though very sweet and delicious when cooked, are 

 not nearly as handsome aud plump and tempting in looks as the trout 

 lower down, say in the Cape Cod aud Long Island streams. Neither do 

 they ever grow as large, neither are their eggs as large. As to the eggs 

 of the largest breed of brook trout are fully twice as large as those size 

 of the eggs, I think I may venture the assertion that the of the fish of 

 mountain rivulets. 



9. — Of what State and lake were these? So I dare say you have dif- 

 erent kinds of Salmo fontinalis. Is this the case? I bought, for some 

 years, eggs of Mr. Annin and of the Charlestown Cold Spring trout 

 ponds. Were these probably of the same kind as those you presented to 

 me a short time ago ? 



A. — The eggs sent to Germany, and first by mistake called lake 

 trout, were true u fontinalis." They were from Mr. Clarke's ponds in 

 Michigan. They were eggs of the same variety of fish (Salvelinus fon- 

 ti-nalis) as those received from Mr. Annin and from the Cold Spring 

 trout ponds at Charlestown, 1ST. II.; but Mr. Clarke's eggs were from 

 exceptionally fine fish. 



10. — You observed that you had a Salmo iridea hatching-house in one 

 of your Eastern States. Do the Salmo iridea spawn there at the same 

 time as in California — in the spring ? Which months are the spawning 

 time in California (McCloud Paver), and which in the Eastern States 

 hatching-house ? 



A. — In the McCloud Eiver.they spawn from about the middle of Jan- 

 uray to the middle of May; but so varied in elevation, latitude, and 

 temperature is the State of California that it idea, I have been informed, 

 is spawning somewhere in the State every month in the year. 



It is unquestionably true that the spawning season of Salmo iridea 

 depends on the climate, that expression being understood to include all 

 climatic influences of every kind. 



Salmo iridea spawns in the McCloud River, as has been mentioned, 

 from the middle of January to the middle of May. In the eastern 

 hatching-houses the same fish spawns in March, April, and May. 



11. — Does this Salmo iridea keep, in ponds, its stronger appetite and 

 greater vitality they speak so much of in California? 



I read in the small book "Fish Hatching, Fish Catching," that they 

 are more vigorous in every way than the Eastern trout, but are not as 

 handsome, have no carmine specks, but will live well in captivity and 

 grow rapidly. 



A. — Salmo iridea retains its capacity for eating voraciously when con- 

 fined in ponds, and when confined seems to keep up its well-deserved rep- 

 utation for having a hardy and vigorous organization, though I should 



