194 American Fisheries Society 



with varying success according to the conditions obtaining 

 where its propagation was carried on. It was found that they 

 did better at some hatcheries than at others. But finally, 

 difficulties and puzzling conditions arose at even the previously 

 most successful hatcheries. The average yield of eggs de- 

 creased; a large percentage of eggs could not be fertilized; 

 there were so-called glassy eggs, and other defective eggs, also 

 masses of collapsed egg-shells, etc. By some, these condi- 

 tions were attributed to inbreeding. So, after a while an 

 effort was made to improve the brood stocks by securing eggs 

 from wild trout. 



At first these wild trout eggs came from California, and 

 as the records show, not from the McCloud River, but from 

 the Klamath River basin where at one time Gilbert, and later 

 Snyder, found all sorts of trout excepting Salmo shasta forms. 

 The Klamath River trout, from which these eggs were ob- 

 tained, possess larger scales and are otherwise different from 

 the McCloud trout. Later, wild rainbow trout eggs were taken 

 in Nevada and Colorado. In both places the rainbow trout 

 were originally introduced, and consisted partly of McCloud 

 trout and partly of Klamath trout. So the rainbow trout of 

 the eastern hatcheries finally became the product of McCloud 

 trout with a considerable admixture of other varieties or 

 species. I have examined trout from several of the stations 

 of the Bureau of Fisheries, and there appear to be some 

 typical McCloud fish, some which seem to be a pure breed 

 of another form, or other forms, and others which appear to 

 be crosses. 



It is not my purpose to discuss the fish-cultural effects of 

 this adulteration. As an illustration of the effect of the 

 confused ideas resulting from the long discussion of names 

 regarding fish, an esteemed member and former officer of 

 this Society and a state commissioner, in a meeting of the 

 Society, said that he regarded the rainbow trout and steelhead 

 trout as identical and handled them accordingly. The eggs of 



