AN A(.^COUNT OF SOME FISHES FROM OWENS RIVER, 



CALIFORNIA. 



liy John Otterbein Snyder, 



Of Stanford University, California. 



Owens River basin occupies a long, narrow valley in the most 

 rugged part of the high Sierras of California. On the west the moun- 

 tains rise in an enormous wall above which tower the peaks of 

 Whitney, Tyndall, and Lyell. On the east are Inyo Range and the 

 Wliitc Mountains, whose summits also reach a great elevation. 

 Owens Valley may properly be included within the Great Basin, 

 its western boundary being coincident with the recognized confines 

 of the latter. It is without exterior drainage, Owens River and its 

 tributaries receiving their water from the slopes of the neighboring 

 mountains and <lischarging it into Owens Lake, from which it is 

 carried off largely by evaporation. The water of the lake is strongly 

 impregnated with mineral salts. 



The catchment basin of Owens River is narrovvly though sharply 

 separated from that of the San eloaquin by the crest of the Sierras. 

 On the north are Mono Lake and its tributaries, and also a few rela- 

 tively small depressions which may at one time have been connected 

 with the quaternary Lake Lahontan. Extending far to the east 

 and soutli is a wide expanse of almost waterless desert. 



The occurrence of fishes in Owens River has long been knovm, 

 but no serious attempt has been made to establish their relationships, 

 a matter of importance when considered in connection with the 

 geographical position and the complete isolation of the valley. Con- 

 siderable interest therefore attaches to a small collection made by Mr. 

 Clarence Kennedy while acting as assistant to the California State 

 Fish and Game Commission at Laws, a station on the main river. 

 Here the current is not very rapid, and the shores are more or less 

 marshy. 



Four native species are represented in the collection, possibly 

 not the entire fish fauna of the basin. They are a catostomid, two 

 cyprinoids, and a poeciliid. The catostomid and cyprinoids are 

 Lahontan species and do not appear to possess any local peculiari- 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 54— No. 2333 



201 



