rren 



18893 Trout Dispersion 



to the colors, young Boutelle was one of the two 

 Stanford men who fell in the Philippines. 



All the park streams are clear and cold, plunging 

 with high waterfalls off the edge of the lava plateau 

 into deep ravines worn far back by their attrition. 

 Most of them we discovered to be entirely barren Ba 

 of fish life in their upper reaches, because no fish ^'^^^'"^ 

 can surmount their sheer cataracts. There were, 

 however, a few notable exceptions which made the 

 problem of distribution a peculiarly interesting one. 

 This we first encountered in Lupine Creek, a tribu- 

 tary of Lava Creek, a large stream in which, as well 

 as in Lupine, trout abound both above and below a 

 waterfall. Lava, moreover, presents a series of 

 cascades quite impassable by fish. 



But the solution was not far to seek on lines al- 

 ready familiar. In my address on the dispersion of 

 fresh-water fishes before the Indiana Academy, I 

 had suggested that lakes — permanent or temporary 

 — on watersheds may act as agencies for the transfer 

 of individuals. It was therefore with a certain 

 amount of justifiable confidence that we set out on 

 a piece of special exploration. Ascending Lupine Lupine 

 Creek, we reached a marsh through which, in time ^'"^^^^ 

 of high water, it must obviously interlock with 

 Black-tail Deer Creek, a direct and larger tributary 

 of the Yellowstone, which drops into the valley 

 without a cascade. The waters of Lava Creek reach 

 the Yellowstone by way of Gardiner River below 

 its high, obstructing Osprey Fall, while both Gardiner 

 and Black-tail Deer enter the main river below the 

 Great Fall, and where trout are naturally abundant. 

 From that point, therefore, they have an easy run 



C 339 3 



