REPORT OF STATE BOARD OP FISH COMMISSIONERS 99 



if any, it has been transplanted, (e) into what other streams it may- 

 be introduced, (f) whether its artificial propagation can be under- 

 taken by the Bureau, and, finally, (g) what measures or regulations, 

 if any, are necessary for the adequate protection of the species. An 

 investigating party, under the writer's direction,* outfitted at "Red- 

 stone Park, Tulare County, Cal., with saddle horses, pack animals, 

 and camping equipment, and on July 13, 1904, started for Volcano 

 Creek. 



STREAMS AND LAKES EXAMINED. 



That portion of the southern High Sierras drained by the Kings, 

 Kaweah and Kern and, on its eastern slope, by numerous small streams 

 tributary to Owens Lake, is marvelously rich in mountain streams and 

 small mountain lakes. Practically all of them are naturally weil 

 suited to trout. The waters are usually clear and cold and free from 

 injurious contamination. The supply of fish food is ample; entomas- 

 traca and other small crustaceans, as well as aquatic insects and insect 

 larva?, abound. Yet many of these lakes as well as many of 1 lie streams 

 in their upper courses are entirely without fish of any kind. All the 

 larger streams were originally well supplied with trout and, in their 

 lower warmer portions, with suckers and minnows, and these fishes, 

 especialty the trout, naturally pushed their way up the main streams 

 and also into the tributaries until they came to waterfalls which 

 proved impassable barriers. Many of these streams have such bar- 

 riers somewhere in their course. 



In nature, fishes are found only in those streams and lakes which 

 they have been able to reach from some other stream or lake. Usually 

 the invasion of any stream is from below ; and falls that fishes can 

 not surmount prove a final obstruction; no fish will be found in that 

 stream or any of its connecting waters above that point. Occasionally 

 by eating back into the watershed one stream may steal a portion of 

 the headwaters of another on the other side of the divide, and fishes 

 sometimes enter a water course in that way. This, however, happens 

 but rarely. In the region under consideration the streams are typical 

 mountain streams, all more or less turbulent, containing many rapids, 

 cascades, and waterfalls, and with long, relatively quiet reaches 

 where the waters flow through mountain meadows. The larger 

 streams flow through deep canons, often with sheer walls several 

 hundred feet high, extending back from the top of which is the rela- 

 tively level high plateau, traversed by many smaller streams. Many, 

 perhaps most, of these tributary streams leave the plateau in a series 



*The other members of the party were Prof. Oliver P. Jenkins and Prof. Rufus L. 

 Green, of Stanford University; Prof. Chancey Juday, of the University of Colorado; 

 Mr. Charles B. Hudson, of Detroit, Mich., artist of the expedition, and necessary assist- 

 ants, packers, and cook. 



