THE PACIFIC SLOPE. 221 



altogether, having probably been driven out by the poison- 

 ous drainage from the mines along their borders. Trout are 

 found in nearly all the streams that discharge into the 

 Pacific Ocean from the Coast Kange of mountains, and in 

 the greater number of the mountain streams of the Sierra 

 Nevada. They vary greatly in size and appearance in differ- 

 ent waters, and at difierent seasons; but so far no variety 

 is exactly similar to any of the brook-trout of the- New 

 England States. The large brown and silver trout of Lake 

 Tahoe and the Truckee Kiver are pronounced by Mr. Seth 

 Green not to be trout, but species of the land-locked salmon. 

 These fish make annual migrations from Lake Tahoe to the 

 brackish waters of Pyramid Lake. Many of the fishermen 

 of Tahoe insist that the so-called silver-trout does not 

 leave the lake; but, as they are occasionally caught in the 

 river, it is probable they also migrate, but perhaps at an ear- 

 lier or later season. In the streams of the Coast Eange of 

 mountains the trout spawn in November and December; in 

 the streams of the Sierra Nevada in March and April. 

 There are no trout in the mountain streams above large 

 falls. If there ever were trout above the falls, they have 

 passed below them in their migrations down stream, and are 

 debarred from returning. 



Of good trout streams on the coast may be mentioned the 

 Gobethey Creek, two miles below Spanishtown ; Lobetis 

 Creek, four miles below; the San Gregoria, which is fre- 

 quented by salmon also; Pompona Creek, four miles fi'om 

 San Gregoria; and the Pescadero, a confluent of the Butena 

 Eiver, the latter abounding in salmon (so-called), in 

 such quantities that, from October to March, wagon-loads 

 of fish weighing from two to thirty pounds are taken daily 

 and sold at the high price of seventy-five cents per pound. 



Great complaint is made of the depletion of lakes and 

 streams by the erection of dams and the refuse of factories 

 which poison the water : the same old story of the Eastern 

 States repeated. Waters which formerly swarmed with fish 



