FISHES OF WEST VIRGINIA.’ 
By EDMUND LEE GOLDSBOROUGH anp H. WALTON CLARK. 
CONDITIONS IN THE STREAMS. 
The particular regions visited in West Virginia were selected because of their 
former reputation for abundance of fishes, which abundance was now said to be 
decreasing. It was hoped that the cause of this decrease, if there was a decrease, 
might be found, and examination was made of all the streams of any importance 
in those parts of the state visited. 
It was concluded that the aquatic life in general, and fishes in particular, had 
been and are now in many streams being greatly injured and in others practically 
destroyed by the unwise and destructive operations of the lumberman and the miner. 
There is no doubt that the trout have greatly diminished in numbers in certain 
localities and that the decrease is continuing. There is, further, no reason why this 
decrease can not be checked by the enactment and enforcement of protective laws 
and the Monongahela and upper Potomac basins become an attractive region to the 
angler. The water of the mountain streams is sufficiently cool for the continued 
residence of the trout, native and still abundant in certain localities, and efforts 
to protect and propagate the fish would undoubtedly produce most satisfactory and 
obvious results. 
NORTHEASTERN WEST VIRGINIA. 
The investigations were begun in 1899 at Beverly, with a route thence in a sort of 
irregular circle about the mountainous region, including the headwaters of the 
Monongahela, Potomac, and Greenbrier or their tributaries. Thus, with a compara- 
tively small amount of journeying, it was possible to examine streams diverging into 
widely different regions. 
@ Based on investigations conducted for the Bureau of Fisheries, under direction of William Perry 
Hay, head of the department of biology in the Washington High Schools, Washington, D. ©. 
31 
