Rainbow Trout 253 



from six months to three years, going down to 

 the sea with the high waters of the spring, after 

 which they return to the streams to spawn as 

 typical steelheads. Those that are landlocked 

 or do not descend to the sea remain rainbow all 

 their lives. Be this angling theory correct or 

 not so, the only scientific rebuttal of it is the fact 

 that the scales are smaller in the steelheads than 

 they are in the rainbow, with a few other minor 

 differences. 



There are one species and five subspecies of 

 the rainbows, the typical form being popularly 

 known as the rainbow or Coast Range trout 

 (Salmo irideus, specific name from the Latin, "a 

 rainbow "). It is a large, robust, short, and deep 

 fish, growing to a weight of thirteen pounds in 

 the Williamson River, and up to thirty pounds 

 when sea-run. The head is short, somewhat con- 

 vex, and "obtusely ridged above"; mouth slightly 

 smaller than in other trouts, and the eyes are 

 somewhat larger; the teeth on the roof of the 

 mouth are in two irregular series ; the tail fin is 

 slightly forked, the body, sides, and ventral fins 

 irregularly but profusely marked with black spots, 

 those on the tail being smaller than those on the 

 body and on other fins. The coloration is bluish 



