REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 33 



EASTERN BROOK-TROUT. 



( Sa linu fon tina lis . ) 



Our experiments with Eastern brook-trout are producing most gratify- 

 ing results. We have for the past two years made, with the United 

 States Bureau of Fisheries, an exchange of 200,000 of those eggs for an 

 equal number of Rainbow eggs. Those we secured were sent from the 

 United States station at Leadville, Colo., where they had been intro- 

 duced from New Hampshire and Vermont some years previously. In 



1903, at our Verdi station in Nevada, we hatched 92,000 fry from one 

 half the Leadville consignment of 100,000 eggs. The fry were dis- 

 tributed in the small meadow streams and lakes in the Tahoe and 

 Truckee regions. The remaining 100,000, from which 90,000 fry were 

 produced, were hatched at our Sisson hatchery and were placed in 

 suitable waters in the northern part of the State. Careful attention 

 had brought good results from the comparatively small stock of breeders 

 raised in the hatchery ponds at Sisson. From them we secured 

 320,000 eggs, giving approximately 480,000 fry from all sources for 

 distribution in 1903. 



In 1904 we secured another consignment of 200,000 Eastern brook- 

 trout eggs from Leadville, and with still better results from our pond 

 fish at Sisson we have distributed this year about 800,000 fry. 



It is safe to say that better results have never come from any plants 

 of fresh-water fishes made since this Commission was organized. 

 From plants made in August, 1902 — two years ago — specimens have 

 been taken weighing two pounds. In Foulk's Lake, a small body of 

 water near Verdi, Nev., specimens have been taken weighing upward of 

 1\ pounds. In the Tuolumne meadows they have attained a weight 

 of 2 pounds in two years from the date of planting. 



Remarkable results have come from plants made in August, 1903. 

 In a series of small connected lakes, five in number, situated in the 

 Tahoe region near Tallac, 25,000 fry were planted. On August 12, 



1904, specimens were taken ranging from 8 to 9 inches in length. The 

 fry had been planted in the small stream connecting these bodies of 

 water and not in the lakes, but we were surprised and delighted to find 

 by actual tests that they had spread out so that specimens were either 

 seen or taken in each lake, as well as from the stream. As these lakes 

 had never been stocked until these fish were carried there on pack 

 animals (through the courtesy of Messrs. Comstock and Lawrence) 

 and were known to be barren of fish life, and the specimens taken were 

 all of the introduced and easily distinguished Eastern brook-trout, there 

 could be no better demonstration of their remarkable development and 

 adaptability to the cold waters of the high altitudes of the Sierra. 

 Another striking example of their growth is afforded by the results 

 following the planting of one can of 5,000 fry, six months old, in 



3— FC 



