242 The Troiits of America 



about the middle of it ; the teeth are small, those 

 on the roof of the mouth are in two long, alter- 

 nating series ; the anterior gill cover is rather 

 wide and the others moderate in size. The tail 

 is wide, and on the young fish is somewhat forked; 

 in the adult it looks as if cut with a blunt pair 

 of shears. The flesh is pale, and the general 

 external coloration is an olive-green on the back 

 and silvery on the belly. In the fresh sea-run 

 fish taken in the salmon traps of Upper Puget 

 Sound, I observed that a deep blue tinge was 

 always present on the back, and on the head, 

 back, upper fins, and tails were more or less 

 black spots, but the belly was usually free from 

 them. Both sexes in the spring have a broad 

 flesh-colored median band, and there is a deep, 

 mellow red on the gill covers, and this coloration 

 is generally retained throughout the year. The 

 fins are not tinged with red, and no color slashes 

 of crimson are present on the lower jaw. 



The steelhead inhabits coastwise streams from 

 British Columbia south to Santa Barbara County, 

 California, and those west of Sierra Nevada and 

 the Cascade Range. It is very abundant in the 

 Lower Columbia, the Russian, and Klamath 

 rivers. In edible qualities it is about on a par 



