134 Fish Stories 



of the base of the tongue, besides the larger teeth which sur- 

 round the edge of the tongue in all trout. The body is 

 usually well spotted, and the spots are small, there being 

 none on the belly. But no one can know a trout by its 

 spots, because the spots vary interminably. They depend 

 mostly on the character of the water. In the lakes they 

 grow faint, and in the sea they vanish altogether, giving 

 place to a uniform silvery sheen. This is true of all trout 

 alike, American, Asiatic and European. 



The color of the flesh varies equally. It seems to depend 

 partly on age, partly on the food. A diet of shrimps turns 

 the flesh red, it is said, but the statement needs proving* 

 No one really knows why trout flesh varies in color. The 

 size of trout varies as much as the color. A species which 

 is mature, and spawns at six inches in the mountain brooks, 

 may reach a weight of ten or even twenty pounds when 

 taken in the sea. Whatever food the fishes can get, they 

 will turn into trout, and the trout which cannot get much 

 are just as perfect as the others. 



The best mark of the cut-throat trout is found in the 

 small scales. In a row from head to tail you will count from 

 one hundred and fifty to one hundred and eighty. 



The cut-throat trout spawns in the spring. Those in the 

 streams run up the smaller brooks while those in the sea 

 or the lakes seek shallower waters, either a stream or a 

 sandbar in the lake. No trout ever spawns in the sea. The 

 cut-throat trout is hardy and vigorous, but its degree of 

 energy depends on the character of the streams. A trout in 

 warm water anywhere usually shows little fight. In the 

 lakes, the cut-throat rises to the spoon or the phantom min- 

 now. In the brooks, a fly, a grasshopper, or a bunch of 

 salmon eggs will usually engage its attention, and the swifter 

 the stream the harder it fights. This species is the most 

 widely distributed of the trout. It is one of the handsomest 



* The junior author found rainbows in Klamath Lake and Feather 

 River, soma white, some red, in the same pool. 



