HOW THE TROUT CAME TO CALIFORNIA. 2?$ 



Juan. In the beautiful streams of Western Colo- 

 rado the trout have made themselves at home, 

 and their abundance here is scarcely less than in 

 their chosen haunts in Washington and Alaska. 

 Already the sage-brush trail which leads to 

 Trapper's Lake and the cliffs along Eagle River is 

 strewn with tin cans, newspapers, cigar stumps, 

 and other debris of civilization. Splendid trout 

 still lurk in the depths of the wild canon " de las 

 Animas Perdidas," above Hermosa and Durango. 

 The trout of the Colorado River 1 most resemble 

 those of the Rio Grande, but they change a good 

 deal with variations in surroundings. They show 

 a tendency to orange rather than purple shades 

 on the fins, the spots are small and largely on the 

 tail, and the scales are smaller than in most of the 

 others. The sides show often a red lateral band 

 more distinct than in any other form thus far 

 mentioned. The cut-throat mark is still clear, as 

 in all trout east of the Cascades and the Sierra 

 Nevada. 



In the Arkansas basin, in a bend of the main 

 divide, high above the river, lies a pair of glacial 

 lakes, shut in by one moraine and separated by 

 another. These are the Twin Lakes, beloved of 

 anglers and famous for their magnificent mountain- 

 setting. In these lakes are two kinds of trout, 

 different in size, color, character of flesh, way of 

 living, and choice of bait. Dr. Evermann and I 

 visited the lake in 1889. We found but one kind, 

 the ordinary Greenback Trout of the Arkansas, 



1 The trout of the Colorado Basin is Salmo mykiss pleuriticus 

 Cope. 



