THE GAME FISHES OF THE WOELD 



clan of trout. I have taken numbers that were too big to fight, 

 or out of trim and disappointing ; but the average rainbow at 

 its best is a hard fighter, and a living challenge to the best 

 tackle. 



This trout is indigenous to the permanent streams and many 

 lakes of the Pacific coast of North America from the Columbia 

 and farther north, doubtless, down to Lower California, where, 

 in the little streams which flow down from the great mountain, 

 San Pedro Martyn, there is a pigmy rainbow (Salmo nelsoni). 



There is no mistaking the rainbow of the pools and dark 

 streams as he is big-headed, his tail wide, while his colour ranges 

 from reddish to old port. You may count from one hundred 

 and twenty-five to one himdred and thirty scales in a line along 

 his body, and they are larger than in other trout. He talks 

 with a high and demonstrative dorsal fin, very expressive, 

 denoting rage and a lot of other things. You may also count 

 from seven to ten rows of dark leopard-hke black spots. K you 

 wish to push your investigations further, there are no teeth along 

 the middle line of the tongue, wMle the head, as stated, is large, 

 being nearly a fourth the length of the fish. The male is large 

 and ponderous, attaining a weight of twenty-four or twenty- 

 five pounds, and displays a salmon-like suggestion of curving 

 jaws in the spawning season. In small streams the rainbow 

 matures at six inches, and in Klamath it is found bearing eggs 

 every month in the year. 



In California, Oregon and Washington, it is the ' native son,' 

 the fish of the people, found in lakes and streams, from the sea 

 to five miles above it, and has been sent all over the world with 

 the compliments of California. 



The sea-going rainbow, the steelhead, has been referred to 

 elsewhere, but the rainbows I took up to ten pounds in the 

 open lake at Klamath were an entirely different fish in appearance. 

 They were silver and mauve, but slightly spotted, and we called 

 them silver trout. They were possibly the rainbows of the 

 open shallow muddy waters. 

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