Land. — -Black-spotted Mountain Trout 191 



Grande valley above Creede ; and the cutthroat I caught there I could 

 not myself reconcile with the book descriptions, which simply con- 

 firmed the statements that these different types are much confused and 

 intergrade greatly at different points. 



Mr. Fearing : That is what I remember from my own reading and 

 seeing that fish and the fish in Canada, I could not see how they were 

 the same fish. 



G. H. Thomson, Colorado: On the coloration of the black-spotted 

 cutthroat trout 1 would like to have a few words. I believe Dr. 

 Jordan holds that there are 15 different varieties of that family. 

 \ T ow, I had a little experience in Estes Park just along this line. 1 

 will not call the gentlemen I refer to by name, because some of our 

 Denver people might know him, but he has a place near Timber Line 

 in Estes Park. He has a lake stocked with black-spotted trout. A 

 year ago some parties came down to our hatchery, and, as I was ex- 

 bibiting work in the hatchery, one of the gentlemen said: "Did you 

 know that So-and-so has a different variety of the trout?" I said I 

 did not. "Well," he said, "he has, and he is tickled to pieces over it ; 

 he said that he had a strictly different variety of the trout in that 

 lake of his, although they were all put in there at the same time." This 

 was in the month of July. I asked the party how he described them. 

 "Well," he said, "there were some of them that were the ordinary color 

 of the black-spotted trout, had their general colorings along the side, 

 and the spots back of the dorsal fin, and the slash underneath the 

 throat, of the cutthroat : and the others had that slash underneath the 

 throat and underneath and clear to the top of the back, to the top of 

 the dorsal fin, — they were as red as could be — a separate, distinct variety 

 of the trout" Well, it amused me somewhat. I said : "Could he not 

 tell you what the trouble was?" He said: "No." I said: "You go back 

 and tell this party that his strictly new and beautiful trout is the male 

 fish at spawning season, carrying its brilliancy to a high degree. The 

 fish feed upon a red parasite or insect which gives the male more bril- 

 liancy than they otherwise would have. I never heard anything further 

 of his new variety of trout. 



1 was glad Mr. Land in his paper pressed an invitation on you to 

 visit our mountain streams. Now, gentlemen, I do not want you to 

 forget for one moment, whether you have the opportunity at this time 

 or at any other future time, that we have one of the prettiest places 

 in Estes Park that you have ever visited. I am not going to try tit 

 describe it to you ; I simply give you the invitation, and if you ever 

 have an opportunity, come to Estes Park and see it for yourself. 



Now, the question comes to all parties coming to our mountain 

 districts for the summer, what is your fishing? It is not our mountain 

 scenery that is the attraction altogether; but our fishing? Our Game 

 and Fish Commissioner is stocking our streams with the three varie- 

 ties of trout ; and wherever you go in the Rocky Mountains you will 

 find them in the streams. The higher up on the stream, the colder and 



