REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS 79 



by its spots, because the spots vary interminably. They depend mostly 

 on the character of the water. In the lakes they grow faint, and in 

 the sea they vanish altogether, giving place to a uniform silvery sheen. 

 This is true of all trout alike — American. Asiatic, and European. The 

 color of the flesh varies equally. It seems to depend partly on age, 

 partly on the food. A diet of shrimps turns the flesh red, it is said, 

 but the statement needs proving. The size of trout varies as much as 

 the color. A species which is mature and spawns at six inches in the 

 mountain brooks, may reach a weight of ten or even twenty pounds 

 when taken in the sea. Whatever food the fishes can get, they will turn 

 into trout, and the trout which cannot get much are just as perfect as 

 the others. 



The best mark of the Cut-throat trout is found in the small scales. 

 In a row from head to tail you will count from one hundred and fifty 

 to one hundred and eighty. 



The Cut-throat trout spawns in the spring. Those in the streams 

 run up the smaller brooks, while those in the sea or the lakes seek 

 shallower waters, either a stream or a sandbar in the lake. No trout 

 ever spawns in the sea. The Cut-throat trout is hardy and vigorous, 

 but its degree of energy depends on the character of the streams. A 

 trout in warm water anywhere usually shows little fight. In the lakes, 

 the Cut-throat rises to the spoon or the phantom minnow. In the 

 brooks, a fly, a grasshopper, or a bunch of salmon egirs will usually 

 engage its attention. This species is the most widely distributed of the 

 trout. It is one of the handsomest and finest, yet it has rarely been 

 transplanted to waters other than those to which it is native. 



TAHOE TROUT. 



One of the most direct descendants of the Cut-throat trout is the 

 Tahoe trout, which is confined to the streams and lakes of the desert 

 of Nevada, the basin of the former Lake Lahontan. 



It is found in Lake Tahoe, where it was discovered by Dr. Henry W. 

 Henshaw, in 1877. It descends in the Truckee to Pyramid Lake, 

 whence it comes in large numbers to the markets of San Francisco. 

 It was found also in Donner, Webber, and Independence lakes. It is 

 found again in the Carson and the Humboldt — both once tributaries of 

 the vanished glacial lake called Lahontan. From the Truckee it has 

 been introduced into the Feather, the Stanislaus, and the Mokelumne, 

 on the western slope of the Sierras. 



The Tahoe trout is plainly a Cut-throat, having the same red dashes 

 under the throat, the same long head, small scales and teeth on the 

 base of the tongue. It is, however, browner or vellower in color, and 

 the spots are always larger, covering the belly as well as the back of 

 the fish. 



