REPORT OF STATE BOARD OP FISH COMMISSIONERS. 65 



worn into the lava mountain, until away above my head it was a huge overhanging cliff, 

 threatening in appearance to fall at any time, and bury me mountains deep. Once out 

 from under, I drew a long breath and reasoned. Certainly that cavern and cliff has 

 stood just as it is for 3,000 years, anyhow; it ought reasonably to last a few days longer; 

 and besides, those dearly beloved Golden trout. So back under the beetling precipice 

 again; back to the sport I had come so far to seek. The waters roared, the spray 

 ascended, the mighty rocks continued their rest of ages, and the golden beauties rose 

 with all the fervor of the tallest kind of true love to the cast of my glittering fly." 



As far up the cliffs as the spray can reach the rocks are mantled with lichens, ferns, 

 flowers, shrubs, beautiful grasses and mosses, and in the niches, fashioned by water in 

 perfect regularity and symmetry, vegetable growth attains rare luxuriance; while above 

 the reach of the water, the rocky battlements have the barrenness of desolation. The lava 

 is porous and light, but tough and enduring, and with its different strata or layers, pre- 

 sents a bewildering variety of colors. The broken debris at the mountain's feet is ten- 

 anted by a world of ground-hogs, whose piercing whistles are ever-sounding notes of 

 alarm arid orders for prompt disappearance. 



In a recent letter from Mr. Houghton, to whom I am indebted for a 

 copy of the above-named pamphlet, he writes: 



In the first place, "Whitney Creek" is not the proper name of the stream in which 

 they are caught, although it is almost universally so called. The proper name is un- 

 doubtedly "Volcano Creek," so called because it "runs through a bed of lava and lava 

 formation for about ten miles from its confluence with Kern River. "Whitney Creek" 

 proper heads in a little lake directly at the base of "New Mount Whitney," at the point 

 where Professor Langley had his camp when making atmospherical experiments, and 

 flows into Kern River twelve or fifteen miles north of the mouth of Volcano Creek. 

 The latter creek does not receive any of the water shed off either old or new Mount 

 Whitney, consequently I claim that it has no right to the name of Whitney Creek. 



As the book states, the Golden trout are only to be found between Agua Bonita Falls 

 and the Chute. 



The first time I was there was in 1879. At that time the meat of every fish caught 

 was a deep golden yellow. I was again there in 1887, and noticed that we" occasionally 



caught one with white meat. In 1889 more than ? of our catch were of white meat. 



This demonstrates very plainlv that they are crossing with trout from above Agua 

 Bonita Falls, which are the ordinary species of Brook trout. Fish cannot get up the 

 Chute from Kern River, nor can they get up Agua Bonita Falls. 



Now, from the very peculiar formof the fish, I am more than inclined to think they 

 are an entirely different species from any on the coast. You will observe this in the 

 direct rise of the meat from the head to the back, giving them an almost hump-backed 

 appearance; the same spread on the sides is something unusual. I have never seen any 

 other trout with this peculiarity. 



The question of the relation of this trout to others in Kern River 

 must be settled by further investigations, as also the question whether 

 the Salmo Agua Bonita itself is confined to the space in Volcano Creek 

 between the two waterfalls mentioned, or whether in that part of the 

 stream is found a variety different from the ordinary form. 



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