78 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OP 1 FISH COMMISSIONERS. 



to Chihuahua, from Montana to the Pyrenees, and whoever seeks them 

 honestly anywhere in all this range shall find exceeding great 

 reward. Whether he catches trout or not, it does not matter; he will 

 be a better man for the breath of the forests and the wash of the 

 mountain streams in which the trout makes its home. 



CUT-THROAT TROUT. 



Most primitive of the American species, no doubt, is the one named 

 for William Clark. It was born in Alaska, and has worked its way 

 southward and eastward; southward as far as Eel River in California, 

 eastward across the divide into Montana; no great task, for on the 

 swampy flat of Two Ocean Pass the head-streams of the Yellowstone 

 interlock with those of the Snake. It runs southward throughout the 



CUT-THROaT TROUT— Salmo clarkii Richardson. 



great basin of Utah, once tributary to the Snake, and, more or less 

 changed, its descendants have peopled the Platte, the Arkansas, the Rio 

 Grande and the Colorado. 



The Clark trout is usually known as the Cut-throat trout, from the 

 half-hidden gash of deep scarlet which is always found just below 

 the- base of the lower jaw. This gash of red is the sign manual of the 

 Sioux Indian, the Cut-throat among the fierce aborigines. 



This is the best mark of the Cut-throat trout, though it disappears 

 in alcohol, and it is sometimes faintly shown in other trout, especially 

 in the large Rainbow trout of the Shasta region. Other marks are the 

 rather long head, which forms nearly a fourth of the length of the body 

 from the snout to the base of the caudal fin. Almost always there is a 

 narrow line of very slender teeth along the middle line of the base of 

 the tongue, besides the larger teeth which surround the edge of the 

 tongue in all trout. The body is usually well spotted, and the spots 

 are small, there being none on the belly. But no one can know a trout 



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