A Sportsman 293 



readily to salt water, as well as charr, and reach a 

 maximum weight of twenty-five pounds and over, and 

 are of high game qualities, and readily take the fly, 

 as well as fresh bait. They are speared in large num- 

 bers in some streams in the autumn, as they come in 

 from the sea. The designation of steel-heads has been 

 given from the lustrous steel coloring of the heads. 

 Otherwise this trout is dull in color with brown spots. 

 At the Carmelo stream below Monterey Bay they 

 come in largely with the raising of the water from the 

 autumnal rains, where they breed extensively, return- 

 ing to the sea before the spring freshets are over. This 

 stream exhibits the peculiarity late in the spring of 

 clogging up its outlet to the sea in low water by an 

 accumulative sand bank, through which the water 

 seeps, making an entrance impassable for the passage 

 of fish. Down in the stretches of pools so confined 

 the young steel-heads are plentifully found of one and 

 two years old, weighing from a quarter to half a pound, 

 which afford good fly fishing. These young trout go 

 out on the first rise of water, and grow rapidly in the 

 sea. It is not uncommon when the first rains come, 

 when the rise of the stream has not become sufficient 

 to break the barrier of sand at the outlet, to see the 

 steel-heads seeking a passage through the shallow water, 

 and at times throw themselves bodily out on the sand 

 in their eagerness to get through; and when the water 

 rises sufficient for passage, though still shallow, the 

 spearers take their stand and secure sometimes large 

 quantities of the trout by this barbarous method. The 

 incident of throwing themselves out of the water on 

 the sand where fresh water percolates through the 

 bank is also observed with salmon on the Pacific, 



