THE SALMON FAMILY. Jl 



Range or of the Sierra Nevada. It varies much 

 in size ; specimens from northern California often 

 reach a weight of six pounds, while in the Rio San 

 Luis Rey, the southernmost locality from which I 

 have obtained trout, they seldom exceed a length 

 of six inches. Although not an anadromous spe- 

 cies, the rainbow trout frequently moves about in 

 the rivers, and it often enters the sea. Several at- 

 tempts have been made to introduce it in Eastern 

 streams. It is apparently more hardy and less 

 greedy than the American Charr, or Brook Trout 

 (Salvelinusfontinalis). On the other hand, it is 

 distinctly inferior to the latter in beauty and in 

 gaminess. 



The Steel-head {Salmo gairdneri) is a large 

 trout, of twelve to twenty pounds in weight, found 

 very abundantly in the mouth of the Columbia 

 and other rivers, in the spring, at the time of the 

 early salmon run. These are evidently spent 

 fishes. This fact would indicate a spawning time 

 later (probably midwinter) than that of the sal- 

 mon, and their occurrence in the river at the 

 salmon run is evidently due to a return toward the 

 sea. Steel-heads are occasionally taken in the Sac- 

 ramento, but in the Columbia they are abundant. 

 They are rejected by the salmon fishermen, as 

 their flesh is pale, and the bones are much more 

 firmly ossified than in the species of Oncorhynchus. 

 The soft characters of the bones in the latter 

 group, as compared with those of the larger trout, 

 is one feature of their excellence as food, espe- 

 cially in the canned condition. 



Comparing the steel-heads with the rainbow 



