I 



I COn( r:ir\ . it w.ms liuilt to be I 



Bui the owner baa 

 • .| be te ible either 



1 1 the reqairementa of 



Bab ha in the Truckee to 



btnenl of Lake Tahi 

 tractions, I returned from the lake to 1 1 1*> line and 

 with ii of "ur Bister State about opening 



• free way whenever thej 

 en the fr< ifa waters of Tahoe and the brackisb wa 

 r pie there took the i in band. The owner of the only 



da portion of tl applied to, to either have flshv* 



tanner give the fish :i chance. He declined; bul a little gianl 

 unknown hand, made the condition of things aboul thai dam 

 >r the troul to indulge their migratory j>r< ■!>• 

   through a creek, also called Donner, into the 



Truckee about fifteen miles below where thai river leaves Tahoe. On Donner Creek 

 mil a dam so constructed thai no fish once leaving Donner Lake on its • 

 the brackish waters of Luke Pyramid could ever gel back again to breed, 

 e of this is thai brown trout, which I believe always yearly go or 

 .•it least stai to the greal Nevada lake, in Donner are extremely scarce, whilst 



the silver trout, which I think never, or if at all, bul seldom, go down stream beyond 

 the lake they first reached from their hatching grounds, are moderately plentiful. 

 "I may as well remark here that the above is my opinion as to the one kind 

 coming down stream out of the lakes, and the other not doing bo, at least not as a 

 ural instinct, though individual exceptions may occur. But it is eon- 

 tended that there is no distinction in species between the two kinds I designate 

 silver and brown trout — in fact, that they are the same thing — the apparent differ' 

 being merely local caused by the nature and color of the gravel in which they were 

 hatched, and the peculiarities of the water in which they grew or live. Such may 

 be the case, but I have examined a considerable number of both colors, and caught 

 a good many trout in the Atlantic States in my younger days, and I consider that 

 what I here call the brown trout is not the same as what was called the brook- 

 trout in that part of the country where I was born and brought up and caught fish. 

 In every trout I have examined here the brown ones have a straight purplish line 

 on each side of the body from almost the end of its nose to near the tail. This line 

 is not on the silver ones, and on the brown ones I have never found any of the spots 

 or dots usual on all trout below the purplish line. They have invariably been above 

 it. If I remember correctly, the Eastern brook trout have nothing of the purplish 

 line, but merely spots or dots. Not being an ichthyologist I merely call the attention 

 of the Board to what I believe, from my own observation, and ask you and others 

 who read this report to examine this question and another — are there any trout, 

 either in this State or Nevada, except, perhaps, in the pure mountain streams 

 further north? Whilst upon the Truckee and the lakes I heard several persons, 

 who have the reputation of being ichthyologists, say that all the fish that we call 

 trout, were in reality land-locked salmon, frequently called schoodic trout. But to 

 return to the trap on Donner Creek. I could not find the owners of this dam, but 

 learned that they were A. C. Toll and Brothers. I afterwards understood from Com- 

 missioner Redding that they had promised him that they w r ould either remove the 

 dam entirely or put in satisfactory ways and ladders. 



"At the source of the Truckee, i.e., Lake Tahoe, two persons have been and 

 I believe that, to some extent, they are still in the habit of taking the fish by means 

 of seines, nets, and traps, on the alleged pretense of catching them for their spawn 

 to stock lakes, streams, and ponds. But the fact is they catch them at all times of 

 the year, and sell immense quantities, without reference to either spawn or spawning 

 season ; and, although I did not see it, and can scarcely believe it, I have been 

 informed by their neighbors of credibility that fish and spawn were dipped out by 



