The Golden Trout of the High Sierras 101 



Collectively, all three species are known as the golden 

 trout of Mount Whitney. All three of them are bright 

 golden, with orange fins and an orange stripe along the 

 side. Like all true trout, they are spotted with black. In 

 Salmo whitei this spotting is profuse and evenly distributed 

 fore and aft. In Salmo roosevelti the spots are mostly on 

 the posterior parts. The other species is somewhat inter- 

 mediate in this regard. 



All of these trout are mature at the length of six to eight 

 inches. The streams in which they live are near the timber 

 line and open to bird or man. They take the hook readily, 

 and are thoroughly unsophisticated. 



So Jong ago as 1875, Mr. H. W. Henshaw noticed the 

 Salmo aguabonita in the waters of the south fork of the 

 Kern. He says that they may be taken in any sort of 

 weather, at any hour of the day, with any kind of bait. 

 " The color is usually very bright, and for beauty this 

 species takes rank with the foremost of its kind, and it has 

 been well called the golden trout. In the clear current of 

 a mountain stream, a flash of sunlight is scarcely quicker 

 than' the gleam o ( f gold and silver seen for a single, instant 

 as the whirling waters are cut by one of these trout, as he 

 makes a rush from his lurking place at some rare morsel 

 which is being borne past him." 



The rocks over which these streams flow are of bright 

 granite and quartzite, gray and red. It is supposed that the 

 color is protective, for the fish are colored like the bottom. 

 To a bird looking into the stream, the deception is perfect. 

 It is supposed, though no one knows, that the colors have 

 been attained through natural selection. The redder the 

 fish, the better its chance to escape the fish-hawk and eagle. 

 If this is not the cause of the color, no one can guess any 

 other, and to escape its enemies through resemblance to 

 natural objects is not a trait of the fish alone, but of hun- 

 dreds of other creatures in these and other mountains. But 

 whatever the cause, nothing in nature is more beautiful or 



