67 



spring water in which they were hatched. Nor does the 

 change produce any diminution of health. Fry taken 

 from the hatching troughs and placed in tanks with the 

 water at sixty degrees, became, in the course of five 

 months, five times as large as those that remained in the 

 water of a temperature of about thirty-five degrees. 

 They were exceedingly active, very few ot them died ; 

 they ate voraciously, and their colors were very remark- 

 ably brilliant. 



California mountain trout are also more vigorous in 

 every way than the eastern trout ; they are not so hand- 

 some, having no carmine specks, and much duller colors 

 on their sides and bellies, but they are hardy, lived well 

 in confinement, and grow rapidly. They take a fly readi- 

 ly and furnish excellent sport to the fisherman, while their 

 flesh which like that of our trout is sometimes white and 

 sometimes red is not to be surpassed as food. So strong 

 are they that they are difficult to manipulate in extracting 

 the spawn from them. They are hard to hold and will 

 only give down their milt or spawn when they are ready. 

 The person handling them must wait for his opportunity. 

 The only California trout which were ever acclimatized 

 in the eartern states up to this time (1878,) were hatched 

 and grown in the New York establishment. They com- 

 menced spawning March 14, 1878, three years after they 

 were imported in the egg. They yielded more eggs than 

 the eastern trout in proportion to their size, and the eggs 

 were slightly larger. They continued spawning until 

 May 25th, and began to hatch in forty-five days. By 

 the report of the Utah Commissioner of 1878, it is said 

 that the western trout spawn in May, but as no spawners 

 were taken by the Commissioner and no eggs obtained 

 by him, he may have been too late, and the fish which 

 he obtained instead of being all males, as he supposed, 

 may have been spent fish. 



