282 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



science through the enthusiastic devotion of Rear- 

 Admiral Beardslee, who regards it as the finest of 

 all trout, and who has taken specimens of ten 

 pounds' weight in this wonderful lake. This form 

 differs from the Steel-head in its large scales and 

 large head, and is one of the best marked of all the 

 trout-forms in the northwest. 



In the same lake occurs another splendid trout 

 of large size, the Crescent Trout. 1 It seems to be 

 also an offshoot from the Steel-head, but its head 

 is quite different in cut and much larger in size. 

 Its scales are considerably smaller than in the 

 Beardslee trout, and in both the black spots are 

 small and scattered. 



If what I think to-day is the truth for to-morrow, 

 the Steel-head passed southward from the Colum- 

 bia along the California coast, entering the brooks 

 of the Coast Range, spawning there and passing 

 back into the sea, but not always, for some- 

 times it had gone so far from the ocean that it 

 could never get back in its lifetime, the whole 

 western flank of the Sierra Nevada being full 

 of trout brooks. The trout came into them. They 

 stayed because it was good to be there. And 

 from Steel-head stock may have come the splendid 

 trout of the Kern already mentioned, Salmo gaird- 

 neri gilberti. It is probably more like the original 

 Steel-head than the Steel-head itself now is ; for it 

 has red under the throat, like its great-grandfather 

 mykiss. In any event, it fills the Kern River now, 

 and is ready for any angler who invades its rocky 

 fastnesses. 



1 The Crescent Trout is Salmo crescentis Jordan & Beardslee. 



