818 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



(See No. 459 of the writer's natural-history collection for the Smithso- 

 nian Institution.) 



This is another well-defined species. It is the common brook-trout 

 of Oregon. It is very abundant in the streams emptying into the Colum- 

 bia below the Dalles. It resembles very much the common brook-trout 

 of California, of which a very large number of specimens of all sizes 

 have been sent to the Smithsonian Institution by the writer. (See Nos. 

 462, 476 et passim of the writer's Smithsonian collection.) Like the Cali- 

 fornia mountain-trout, it also spawns in the winter, chiefly, I think, in 

 January. In the small brooks of Oregon the largest do not weigh over 

 2 or 3 pounds, but in larger waters it is said to attain a weight of 15 

 pounds and a length of 2 feet. In California (if the same fish), they 

 are taken in the McCloud River weighing 3 or 4 pounds. The Fario 

 stellatus is found with both white and red meat. It takes the fly, and is 

 particularly fond, as most trout are, of salmon roe, which consequently 

 makes a very effective bait. It is easily distinguished from the other 

 i^almonidce (supposing it to be the same as the common California brook- 

 trout,) because it resembles none of them except the Salmo masonij and 

 from this it difiers in having larger spots and more of them, in having 

 smaller scales, and a red patch under the jaw. 



Hypomesus pretiosus, (Girard) Gill. 



Syn. — Argentina pretiosa, Girard. Osmerus elongatiis, Ayres. 

 * Common name, Columbia River Smelt. 



This fish is allied to the smelt, having the odd fln on the back between 

 the dorsal and caudal, which distinguishes the salmon family. It is a 

 very singular fact that, previous to the year 1870, there had been no 

 smelts in the Columbia River for thirty years. Since then they have 

 ascended the Columbia in vast quantities each year, usually during the 

 last of March, but sometimes, as in 1871, in the month of February. It 

 is also a very singular fact about these fish, that they never go up any 

 river but the Cowlitz. The run lasts only about eight or ten days, 

 although the fish remain in the river in all about a month. Their course 

 can always be tracked by the flocks of gulls which follow them. Great 

 quantities can be caught with nets, or fishermen's rakes, though very 

 few in comparison with what might be, and a considerable number are 

 so taken and sent to Portland fresh, but not many are salted, as it 

 is their spawning-season when they ascend the river, and, to use a fish- 

 erman's expression, *■' they are all spawn at this season," and conse- 

 quently not worth curing. This fish is easily distinguishable from all 

 other varieties in the Columbia, because it resembles none of them 



at all. 



Salmo spectabilis, Girard. 



Syn. — Common name : Red-spotted Salmon. 



Sp. Ch. — Body subfusiform in profile, very much compressed, the 



*See No. 460, writer's Smithsonian collection. 



