THE FISHES OF THE STREAMS TRIBUTARY TO 

 TOMALES BAY, CALIFORNIA. 



By JOHN OTTERBEIN SNYDER, 

 Stanford University, California. 



Ji 



INTRODUCTION. 



The larger coastal streams of California which enter the ocean at points between 

 the Klamath and Carmel Rivers are in most cases inhabited by one or more species of 

 fluvial fishes which are either identical with forms found in the Sacramento-San Joaquin 

 system or are very closely related to them. Beginning at the north and enumerating 

 these streams, it is found that Redwood Creek has no fresh-water fishes. Bear, Eel, and 

 Mad Rivers pre inhabited by a single species, Catostomus humboldtianus , a representative 

 of the common Sacramento sucker. Mattole, Noyo, and Big Rivers and the smaller 

 streams which drain the region between Bear and Navarro Rivers have no fluvial species. 

 Navarro and Gualala Rivers each has a single species of Hesperoleucus {Rutilus sym- 

 metricus of authors generally), a minnow measurably differentiated from H. venustus of the 

 Russian and Sacramento Rivers, while Garcia River, about as large as either of these and 

 draining a basin between them, has no minnows. Russian River has several species of 

 minnows and one sucker, all of which are Sacramento forms. The streams entering San 

 Pablo and San Francisco Bays have fishes identical with those of the Sacramento; in 

 fact, they form a part of the great Sacramento-San Joaquin system, the waters of the 

 bay not constituting a barrier sufficient at all times to prevent the passage of fresh-water 

 fishes. The small creeks between the Golden Gate and Monterey Bay are not known to 

 have fluvial fishes. In the streams tributary to Monterey Bay are found Sacramento 

 species and others closely alHed to them. 



Faunal reports have appeared from time to time dealing with the various basins of 

 this entire region except that including the streams which enter Tomales Bay, and it 

 is the purpose of this paper to present an account of the fishes which inhabit them." 



Only two streams flow into Tomales Bay which are large enough to support fishes, 

 Papermill Creek, with Olima and Bear Valley Creeks as tributaries, which enters the 

 southern end of the bay, and Walker Creek, which flows into the northern part. A 

 recent examination of these streams shows that the fishes living there are specifically 

 identical with those of near-by basins. Besides forms able to withstand salt water, as 

 the trout, cottoids, and sticklebacks (no salmon were seen), there are found here a 

 sucker, Catostomus occidentalis, and a minnow, Hesperoleucus ■venustus,'' the latter 

 occurring in all the streams, while the sucker is apparently absent from Walker Creek. 



o Under the direction of the Bureau of Fisheries the writer and Lee R. Dice visited the creeks tributary to Tomales Bay in 

 the latter part of October, 1910, and while searching for young salmon made a collection of fishes on which this accotmt is based. 



& Through some oversight Evermann and I.atimer (Barton Warren Evermann and Homer Barker I.atimer; On a collection 

 of fishes from the Olympic Peninsula, together with notes on other west coast species; Proceedings of the Biological Society of 

 Washington, vol. xxra, p. 133) record Rutilus bicolor as having been taken in Walker Creek. This species is indigenous to the 

 Klamath system. 



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