Rocky Mountain \A^hitefish 



This species attains a length of a foot or more, and a weight 

 of about 4 pounds, though the average is considerably less. 



During the spring and early summer they take the fly freely, 

 as well as the baited hook. Though not as game as the trout 

 of the same region, they are sufficiently so to afford much 

 sport, especially when caught from the swiftly flowing streams. 

 The smallness of the mouth of this fish requires the use of hooks 

 of very small size. When bait is used, very small grasshoppers, 

 salmon eggs and small bits of fresh meat of almost any kind 

 have proved effective. 



Among the places where excellent sport with this fish may 

 be had, may be mentioned the headwaters of Salmon River and 

 Big Payette Lake in Idaho, streams near Dillon, Montana, lakes 

 Pend d'Oreille and Coeur d'AIene, and Provo River, Utah. 



As a pan-fish it holds very high rank. Examples 7 to 10 

 inches taken in 20 to 60 feet of water are usually very fat, and 

 most delicious, and cannot be surpassed in sweetness and deli- 

 cacy of flavour. Among the fishes of the Northwest there is 

 none more richly deserving of preservation than this mountain 

 herring. 



Though this species is most widely known as the mountain 

 herring, it is also called Williamson's whitefish. Rocky Mountain 

 herrings Rocky Mountain whitefish, and in some places grayling. 



Head 4^ to 5; depth 4 to 5; eye 4^; snout 3I- to 4; D. 10 to 

 12; A. 10 to 12; scales 9 or 10-78 to 88-7 or 8; gillrakers 11 to 

 15-I-7 to 10; pectoral i^; ventral if; maxillary 4; mandible 3; 

 longest dorsal ray i|. Body oblong, but little compressed; head 

 short, conic, the profile abruptly decurved; snout compressed and 

 somewhat pointed at tip, which is entirely below level of eye; 

 preorbital broad, f width of eye; maxillary short and very broad, 

 reaching orbit, thus appearing longer than in other species owing 

 to the shortness of the snout; supplemental bone narrow; snout in 

 the males produced and pig-like in the breeding season; adipose 

 fin very large, extending behind the anal; gillrakers short and thick, 

 shorter than the pupil; scales of back and side in breeding season 

 covered with prominent tubercles. Colour, bluish above, silvery on 

 sides, whiter below; breeding males with the under parts white; 

 all the fins tipped with black; caudal and adipose fins steel- 

 blue. The parrmarks persist on the young for a year or 

 more. 



The whitefish found in the headwaters of the Missouri River 

 has been described as a subspecies (cismontanus) of the preceding. 



