REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 57 



trout, or whether any Rainbow trout, placed in the ocean or the river 

 mouth, and allowed to feed on the rich food which the salmon gets, 

 would not, in time, develop into a Steel-head regardless of the form of 

 its parents. The evidence, so far as it is in, is conflicting. There are 

 some things which go to show that the two are distinct fishes. Other 

 evidence Avould show that they are simply forms of the same thing, and 

 a thorough study of the coastwise streams of this State is necessary 

 before this point can be settled. If the tw'o are the same, then the name 

 Salmo irideus must drop from our lists, because the Steel-head was first 

 introduced to science, and the name of Salmo gairdneri is the oldest. 



The remaining trout of this coast is the species known as the Cut- 

 throat trout, or Salmo mykiss. This is the longest known of the Amer- 

 ican trout, having been discovered first by Steller, who gave it the 

 Russian name of mykiss, which science has preserved. It is the most 

 widely distributed of all our trout, being found throughout Alaska, 

 Kamtschatka, in all the streams of Washington and Oregon, in the 

 northwestern part of this State, throughout the rivers of the Great 

 Basin of Utah, in all the streams on both sides of the Rocky Mountains 

 until w^e come to the desert lands, where the washes of sand make the 

 streams uninhabitable to any trout, and thence extending its range 

 southward in the mountains as far as the springs in Chihuahua, the 

 southernmost point reached by any trout in any country. Throughout 

 this vast area the Salmo mykiss is found. It is subject to very great 

 variations according to the character of the water, according to the food 

 which it receives, and according to various other less known circum- 

 stances. It is, however, in all this region, substantially the same fish. 

 In some places it reaches a weight of 25 or 30 pounds. In the southern- 

 most limit of its range it never becomes more than a fingerling, but 

 everywhere in this whole great region every specimen retains more or 

 less distinct traces of the same mark — a deep crimson or scarlet blotch 

 on the half-concealed membrane between the two branches of the'lower 

 jaw — the mark which has suggested the name of Cut-throat trout. It 

 has much smaller scales than the Rainbow trout or the Steel-head. In 

 fact it has smaller scales than any other of the known species of 

 trout, although much larger than the scales of any of the charrs. In 

 a longitudinal series along the side the usual number is about 175. 

 Excepting the red blotch and the presence of black spots somewhere, all 

 other details of coloration are extremely variable. As we go eastward 

 the spots tend to bunch themselves more and more on the tail, so that 

 in eastern Colorado, on the Rio Grande and the Platte, most specimens 

 that are taken are spotted almost entirely on the tail. In Washington 

 and Oregon the spots are usually evenly divided over, the back, and in 

 the trout of Lake Tahoe they commonly cover the belly also. In Cali- 

 fornia it has been positively found only in Lake Tahoe, in the Feather 

 River, and in some streams of the northwestern part of the State. It 

 will probabl}^ be found to be the common trout of Lassen and Modoc 

 Counties, and ijerhaps along the east slope of the entire Sierra Nevada. 

 The largest known specimens have been taken in Lake Tahoe and in 

 the salt water about Puget Sound. Here it is a very common fish. As 

 in the case of all trout entering salt water, these sea-run individuals are 

 more silvery and less spotted than those found in the mountain streams 

 and the lakes. The presence of salt water in all fishes destroys the 

 black spots and markings which are found in fresh water, replacing 



