The Trout of the Great West 139 



sixteen to twenty pounds. From the market point of view 

 the steelhead is the most important of American trout, being, 

 usually, the largest and one of those most easily reared arti- 

 ficially. It is a fine game fish, taking the hook freely and 

 vigorously. The large trout of Fraser River, known as 

 Stit-tse, or Kamloops trout (Sal mo kamloops), is a magni- 

 fied steelhead. It resides in the large lakes of Washington 

 and British Columbia, especially the Kootenay and the Kam- 

 loops, never descending to the sea. 



There has been much discussion as to whether the steel- 

 head is a species really distinct from the rainbow trout, and 

 on this question the writer has at different times held differ- 

 ent opinions. 



Very careful comparison of specimens leaves no doubt 

 that the two are distinct. The steelhead usually is slenderer 

 than the rainbow trout, less spotted, has less red on the side 

 and reaches a larger size. But these distinctions are all de- 

 ceptive. The best characteristic of all is the short head, 

 shorter in proportion than in any other trout. The head, 

 as in fishes generally, is proportionately shorter in the adult 

 than in the young. 



The dorsal fin of the steelhead is never, in my experience, 

 as large or as much spotted as in the rainbow trout, or even 

 as in the cut-throat trout. The scales are always larger 

 than in the rainbow, and smaller than in the cut-throat. By 

 these marks even young fish can usually be distinguished. 

 The steelhead finds its center of distribution in the Columbia. 

 The Kamchatka trout, Salmo mykiss, which we once wrongly 

 supposed to be the same as the cut-throat trout, is more like 

 the steelhead. 



The trout par excellence of California, found in almost 

 every permanent brook, is the one to which I gave, in 1878, 

 the name of rainbow trout, this name being a translation of 

 Salmo iridia, given it in 1854 by Dr. W. P. Gibbons, of 

 Alameda. Gibbons wrote the name " iridia," and perhaps 

 that form of the word ought to stand, but irideus, as it is 



