HOW THE TROUT CAME TO CALIFORNIA. 2/7 



came up the trout * from the Snake River to 

 Utah Lake, Jordan River, Bear River, and Provo 

 River. It came into all the sparkling streams of 

 the Uintah and the Wahsatch which now find their 

 end in the salt and alkali of the Great Basin. The 

 trout in Utah Lake are large with large scales and 

 small spots, and the spots are scattered over the 

 body fore and aft as in the trout of the Columbia. 

 Another offshoot from the Columbia Trout is 

 found in the bed of the old Lake Lahontan, a 

 glacial lake now long since drained, in whose basin 

 lie Pyramid Lake, Truckee River, and the great 

 alkaline sink of the Humboldt. In Lake Tahoe, 2 

 the most beautiful lake in all our country, the Tahoe 

 trout appears to its best advantage. It is a big 

 strong gamy fish, with small scales and large black 

 spots, the spots being scattered over head and belly 

 as well as on the tail. The Tahoe 3 Trout is found 



1 The trout of the Great Basin of Utah are Salmo ttiykiss 

 virginalis. 



2 The Trout of Lake Tahoe is Salmo mykiss hmshawi Gill & 

 Jordan, named for its discoverer, the well-known ornithologist. 

 The same trout is found also in Feather River and Moquelumne 

 Rivers, both on the west side of the Sierra Nevada. These facts 

 of distribution were long a mystery, but it has been lately found 

 that both were the result of artificial plants like that which has 

 brought the California Rainbow Trout into Truckee River in 

 competition with the " cut-throat " henshawi. Dr. Willard Platt 

 of Prattsville, California, planted in 1884, 1,000 young trout from 

 Truckee River in the streams of the Big Meadows of Plumas. 

 About the same time trout were taken from the Carson River and 

 placed in the Blue Lakes at the head of the Moquelumne, in 

 Alpine County. 



8 The anglers find two kinds of trout in Lake Tahoe, the Black 

 Trout, or " Snipe," which reaches a small size, and the Silver Trout, 

 which reaches splendid dimensions. The largest Silver Trout on 

 record was taken near Tahoe City and sent in 1878 to General 

 Grant. It weighed twenty-eight pounds. I have carefully compared 



