56 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 



while in the Rio San Lnis Rey, the southernmost locality from which I 

 have obtained trout, they seldom exceed a length of 6 inches. Although 

 not an anadromous species, the Rainbow trout frequently moves about 

 in the rivers, and it often enters the sea. All of the small trout which 

 I have seen from the streams of the Coast Range belong to this species, 

 and there is no authentic record of its occurrence outside of California. 



Another California trout is the so-called Steel-head, more usually 

 known in California as Salmon trout, a fish sufficiently like the Salmon 

 trout of Europe, but the name Steel-head seems to me preferable because 

 it is given to no other fish. The Steel-head, so called from the color of 

 its head and the hardness of the bones of its skull as compared with the 

 bones of the Quinnat salmon, is found very abundantly in the mouth 

 of the Columbia and other rivers at the time of the salmon run. Its 

 usual weight in the Columbia is about 12 pounds, but it occasionally 

 reaches 20 or 25 pounds. The fishes seen in the river mouth at the 

 time of the early salmon runs are evidently spent fishes. They are 

 lean and lank, the flesh is pale and poor, and the bones are hard, for 

 all of which reasons it is, or ought to be, rejected by the canners, 

 although there is no doubt that the Steel-head, when taken at its best, 

 may be one of the finest of all trout. It certainly reaches a larger 

 average size than any other real trout in any country. Its scientific 

 name is Salmo gairdneri, named for Dr. Gairdner, of Astoria, who first 

 discovered the species and sent it to John Richardson. The fact that 

 these fishes are spent in the spring would indicate a spawning time later 

 than that of the salmon — probably midwinter — and they are probably 

 found in the rivers at this time, because they are returning toward the 

 sea. Steel-heads are most abundant in the Columbia, but they are not 

 infrequently taken in the Sacramento, and several young specimens have 

 been sent to me by Mr. Ramon E. Wilson, of the State Fish Commission, 

 from the Eel River and the Klamath River. It is not unlikely that the 

 most of the trout in the coastwise streams of northwestern California 

 belong to this species. 



Comparing the Steel-heads with the Rainbow trout, we find no differ- 

 ences, other than the former is of much larger size, and has a larger 

 mouth, and its caudal fin is truncate instead of forked. But the tail 

 becomes more truncate and the mouth larger with age in all species of 

 salmon and trout. If a Rainbow trout were to reach the size of the 

 Steel-head, it ought to acquire characters similar to those of the latter 

 species. It is not at all unlikely that the Steel-head is simply a Rain- 

 bow trout which has descended into the sea, and which has grown larger 

 and coarser and acquired somewhat different form and habits, on account 

 of its food and its surroundings. If this be true, the very young Steel- 

 heads would not be distinguishable from the young Rainbow trout, and 

 I do not know a single structural character of any kind by which the 

 two may be separated. In every other case there is some mark, some 

 difference in the number of scales or bones, b}^ which we can tell the 

 species of trout, the one from the other; but in the case of the Steel- 

 head there is absolutely no such diff"erence. The Rainbow trout is a 

 small, plump fish, found in the fresh-water streams, and having certain 

 peculiarities of form and coloration. In every internal respect, in every 

 bone and every part of its structure, the Steel-head and the Rainbow 

 trout agree, and so it is one of the unsettled problems connected with 

 the fisheries of California whether the Steel-head is a distinct kind of 



