192 American Fisheries Society 



swifter the water, the more firm the flesh of the fish is, and they are all 

 game fish. 



I would like to ask Mr. Land just one question, if I may have the 

 pleasure of doing so. He referred in his paper to the fish hog. I 

 would like to know if he has found any proposition whatever that will 

 satisfy the fish hog in fishing? 



Mr. Land: Well, the fish hog is so universally known commercially 

 and among sportsmen, that it is not necessary for me to speak in his 

 favor or against him. I think we are trying to eliminate the fish hog 

 as well as the game hog — ostracize him from civilization. 



Prof. L. L. Dyche, Kansas : Mr. Thomson made one remark which 

 perhaps I did not quite understand. In referring to the sexes of the 

 trout, he made special reference to the male as having a red stripe or 

 red coloration on the back, where the female did not have any. Then 

 I understood him to say this was due largely to a red parasite or insect 

 that the fish fed upon. Is that right? 



Mr. Thomson : Perhaps I did not make myself plain. Take our 

 lakes in the high altitude, there is a red parasite or insect that our fish 

 feed upon, giving the flesh a different color, more of a pink color, than 

 the white, the natural color of the black-spotted trout ; and it gives the 

 male trout more of a brilliancy than he would otherwise have. 



Professor Dyche: What parasite is this, do you know? 



Mr. Thomson : I am not prepared to say. 



Professor Dyche: Is it a parasite? 



Mr. Thomson : It is insect life found in the water in the natural 

 moss in these lakes ; and you do not find it unless you go to a high 

 altitude. Take the eastern brook trout in some of our lakes, at Timber 

 Line, and many, as they catch them, declare that they are the salmon 

 trout. This error is made simply because of the coloring of the flesh, 

 due to the parasitic or insect food referred to. 



Mr. Land: I will say, in answer to your question, Professor Dyche, 

 that that is caused by the fresh water shrimp. The fresh water shrimp 

 so impregnates the fish's flesh through the little globules of the Crus- 

 tacea, that it causes the fish to become very brilliant during the spawn- 

 ing season, especially the male, and sometimes the female, but princi- 

 pally the male ; and wherever we find the fish of any kind in these 

 mountain lakes feeding on the shrimp, the flesh becomes highly colored. 

 The same holds true with regard to the salmon of the ocean. I believe 

 it is the shrimp there that causes the change of color. I have taken 

 fish from the lower elevations and put them in the lake and they 

 become red, although they were pale and white before. Fresh water 

 shrimps are found in abundance throughout the waters of the Rocky 

 Mountain states. 



Mr. William L. Finley, Portland Ore. : We have a great deal of 

 difficulty in the identification of those trout in Oregon, and perhaps 

 more than in some of the middle states, possibly it may be due to the 

 fact that we have fish that come in from the ocean, sea-run fish and 



