362 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
lines, Catfish, suckers, moon-eyes, and wall-eyed pike are the most | 
common varieties. The catfish grow to a large size. Both genera, 
Ameiurus and Ictalurus, arecommon. One small Htheostoma was taken. 
Two large turtles (too large to be preserved and hence unidentified) were 
captured with the seine. 
Otter Tail River, Breckenridge, Minn., July 23.—This is one of the 
largest eastern tributaries of the Red River of the North. It rises in 
a county of the same name, about 50 miles east of Breckenridge. At 
Breckenridge it joins the Boise de Soux to form the Red River. The 
Boise de Soux is a continuation in the valley of the Red River, but the 
Otter Tail is by far the larger stream. The Otter Tail River is a stream 
75 to 90 feet wide and 4 to 6 feet deep, though in many places it is much | 
deeper. The current is swift (4 miles per hour), and there is always a | 
good supply of water, since the river is the outlet of several lakes, the 
largest of which, Otter Tail Lake, has an area of 20 or 30 square miles. 
The water is turbid and never clear, even during low water, since the 
sediment carried is a very fine light-colored clay. 
The stream rises in a very level or basin-like drift area, flows through 
drift soil its entire length, nowhere reaching hard bedrock. The course 
of the stream is exceedingly tortuous. The bed is of smocth, hard 
clay in the swifter portions, with sand and gravel in other places. 
The deeper portions of the stream and the shores and eddies are of 
mud, covered with sand and gravel a few inches deep. The bed and 
the channel change slightly with every high rise of water. The banks — 
will average 20 feet in height and are steep and but little eroded. The 
country is level, and the stream has simply eroded the drift to that 
depth. The drift deposit here is comparatively free from bowlders. © 
Water vegetation is very scant, although mints and cress grow in 
shallow water along the shores. The banks are lined with small trees 
and shrubs; willows and box-elders grow to the water’s edge. 
The stream was fished northeast of the town of Breckenridge, about 
a mile above the Great Northern Railroad bridge. The chief difficul- 
ties in collecting are the swift current and steep banks. The 15 and 
45 foot seines were used, but fish life was not found to be abundant. 
Among the food-fishes taken and those reported most common were 
suckers (Moxostoma macrolepidotum duquesnet), rock bass (Ambloplites 
rupestris), and two varieties of catfish (Ameiurus nebulosus and Ictalurus 
punctatus). One specimen of the former weighing about 5 pounds was 
taken. Temperature of water, 79°. 
Cheyenne River, Lisbon, N. Dak., July 26.—The Cheyenne is the 
largest western tributary of the Red River, and rises about 45 miles 
southwest of Devil Lake in Wells County, near the source of the James 
or Dakota River. The two streams flow parallel with each other, about 
40 or 50 miles apart, one on either side of a low divide. For 180 miles 
the Cheyenne flows in a southeasterly direction. At Scovill, 10 miles 
below Lisbon, the course suddenly changes to northeasterly and con- 
