98 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 



THE GOLDEN TROUT OF THE SOUTHERN HIGH SIERRAS 



By BARTON WARREN EVERMANN, 

 Assistant in Charge of Division of Scientific Inquiry, Bureau of Fisheries. 



In 1893 Dr. David Starr Jordan described from the southern High 

 Sierras a species of Golden trout which he named Salmo mykiss agua- 

 bonita. The description was based on three specimens received by 

 him from Mr. W. H. Shockley, of San Francisco, to whom they had 

 been sent by Mr. George T. Mills, Fish Commissioner of Nevada. At the 

 time the description was written it was supposed that the specimens 

 came from Volcano (then called Whitney) Creek, but it was subse- 

 quently learned that they really came from Cottonwood Creek, into 

 which it was said the species had been transplanted from Volcano 

 Creek. In 1893 Dr. Charles H. Gilbert visited the upper Kern River 

 region and secured color notes on examples of Golden trout which he 

 caught in Volcano Creek, and upon others which he obtained from the 

 South Fork of the Kern. 



Although it was apparent from the original description and Dr. 

 Gilbert's notes that the trout described by Dr. Jordan was a fish of 

 unusual beauty, and that the species found in Volcano Creek was 

 even more beautiful, little was added to our knowledge of the trout 

 of the Kern River region until recently. From time to time reports 

 had come to the Bureau of Fisheries regarding the beauty, gameness, 

 and delicious flavor of the Golden trout of Volcano Creek, and then 

 the fear began to be expressed that, owing to its extremely restricted 

 habitat and the ease with which it may be captured, the species was 

 in danger of extermination. 



Stewart Edward White visited the region in 1903 and, impressed 

 with the ease with which the extinction of the species could be com- 

 passed, called the attention of the President to the matter, and the 

 President in turn brought it to the attention of Hon. George M. 

 Bowers, Commissioner of Fisheries. Complying with the request of 

 the President, the Commissioner ordered an investigation to be made 

 for the purpose of determining (a) the natural geographic distribution 

 of this trout, (6) its abundance, (c) its habits as to food and spawn- 

 ing time and its qualities as a food and game fish, (d) into what waters, 



