Aiucrican Fisheries Society 137 



I remember calling on Commissioner Brice in Washington once, and 

 saying to him that 1 conld not see any difference between the two fish : 

 that I thought they must be very closely related; and he said: "Well, I 

 have given out word that the rainbow and steelhead are two distinct 

 species, and that settles it!" (Laughter.) 



Now, as to the spawning time to which you have referred : I find so 

 far as my observations go, and what I learn from the different superin- 

 tendents, that it is regulated very largely by water temperature. As you 

 know, at Wytheville, Virginia, we have handled rainbows for a great 

 many years, and the first hatch from the domesticated stock there was in 

 the spring. As time went on the spawning season gradually turned back- 

 ward until now we take eggs in November from descendants of the same 

 stock of rainbows. In Vermont rainbows hatched and reared in very 

 cold water where anchor ice flowed part of the time, did not spawn, as I 

 remember it, until April or May. In Colorado where the rainbow is an 

 introduced species it spawns just before the native trout in the same 

 waters ; in others at about the same time ; but on the average in April 

 and May, perhaps a month earlier than the native trout. 



President : By native trout you mean the black-spotted ? 



Mr. Titcomb: Yes. We are taking black-spotted trout eggs now. I 

 do not see how we can connect the spawning time with the species, for 

 it will be found that fish of the same stock will spawn in one water even 

 three months earlier than in another. 



President : In Lake Cayuga last fall we took rainbow eggs in Decem- 

 ber, and again in the same lake as late as April. We also took a steel- 

 head in Keuka Lake last fall. If it was not a steelhead I do not know 

 what it was, for certainly it was not a rainbow. 



Mr. Titcomb : My observations agree with those of Mr. Bower, that 

 rainbow trout seek the lower waters. In Vermont they take the waters 

 usually below those where brook trout are found, except an occasional 

 straggler or a very large fish that goes farther down into the deeper 

 pools. This water is rather warm for brook trout. In Colorado the 

 native black-spotted trout occupies the head waters, the eastern brook 

 trout the middle course, while rainbows are principally found in the 

 lower and larger portions of a stream. There the rainbow is the most 

 popular of the three species, I think, the eastern brook trout ranks second 

 and the native third. 



You may be interested in knowing that the Denver & Rio Grande 

 passenger agent has a standing offer to any angler who lands with fly 

 and rod and reel a rainbow trout weighing ten pounds or more. His 

 reward is a $20 gold piece for each fish, which he usually has to pay 

 about twice a year. The largest rainbows are generally taken from the 

 Gunnison River. 



Mr. W. E. Meehan : The matter raises a query as to what we have at 

 Bellefonte. Some four or five years ago we received from the United 

 States Bureau of Fisheries station at Wytheville, Virginia, what was 

 stated to be a consignment of rainbow trout. They were fingerlings and 

 as they grew up, apparently two species developed. They were so dif- 



