[3] TROUT-BREEDING OX THE m'cLOUD RIVER, CAL. 853 



tV.— From W. E. Sisty, fish commissioner, Idaho Springs, Colo., May 3, 1882.] 



I received 10,000 California trout eggs on the 23d of April, and found 

 upon opening them and placing them in the hatching-troughs, that they 

 were in very good condition. I will be pleased to report to you the 

 .success I have in hatching them. 



Very few fish have been lost by death this year. Even during the 

 spawning season but a small percentage died. Mr. Myron Green, who 

 has charge of the ponds, says that the trout recuperate very rapidly 

 indeed after spawning, and that many which were weak and thin and 

 apparently past recovery when spawned became in a few weeks as well 

 and handsome as ever. 



There are now in the ponds about 2,000 trout, the smallest of which 

 weighs 2 pounds or perhaps 1| pounds, and the largest not far from 10 

 pounds. The average size is about 3 pounds, making a total weight in 

 the ponds of 6,000 pounds of trout. 



In order to keep the fish safe the ponds have to be watched very care- 

 fully. Wild cats, lynxes, coons, otters, and minks are very numerous 

 about the ponds, the wild cats and lynxes being the boldest and most 

 destructive to the fish. ]N"otwithstanding the reputation which the cat 

 has had from time immemorial of being disinclined to wet its feet, the 

 wild cats [Lynx riifus) and lynxes [Lynx canadensis) here, Mr. Green 

 says, will even jump into the ponds in their eagerness to get the trout. 

 I might add that the panthers [Felis concolor) have become recently 

 very bold and very numerous in this vicinity. In September of this 

 last year while I was there a large panther came down three nights in 

 succession close to the house of a settler, who lives across the river from 

 the salmon fishery, and carried away several pigs. One also sprang 

 close behind Mr. Myron Green one evening last spring, when he was 

 going home, and caught his dog. It is estimated that the panthers have 

 killed twenty-five hogs on the other side of the river this year, besides 

 many calves, colts, and even full-grown cattle. They have never yet 

 been known, however, to kill the fish in the trout ponds. 



Before closing, allow me to say a few words regarding the question 

 whether there is more than one variety of black-spotted trout in the 

 McCloud Eiver. It is settled definitely that the McCloud Eiver con- 

 tains Salmo irideus, the coarse-scaled trout of the McCloud Eiver proper, 

 which grows to a weight of 8 or 10 pounds, has an obtuse nose and large 

 <eyes, with bright red gill-covers and a broad red band along its body. 

 We know that this fish is in the McCloud Eiver, for there are hundreds, 

 thousands, indeed, in the ponds of the United States Fish Commission 

 on the McCloud, which have been caught in the river and placed in these 

 ponds from time to time. The question remains, is there another kind 

 of black-spotted trout in the ponds or in the McCloud Eiver finer scaled 

 and differently shaped? With special reference to this question I took 

 a day to examine the trout in the United States ponds on the McCloud. 



