The Trout of the Great West 137 



The Tahoe trout usually weighs, when mature, two or 

 three pounds, but in the depths of Lake Tahoe huge speci- 

 mens weighing from seven to twenty-eight pounds have been 

 sometimes taken. Those large trout, called the silver trout 

 of Lake Tahoe (Salmo tahoensis), are supposed to spawn 

 in the lake, and thus to form a sub-species more or less dis- 

 tinct from those which spawn in the brooks. As a food or 

 as a game fish, the Tahoe trout is scarcely different from the 

 ordinary cut-throat of the Columbia. 



Of the many long-headed trout more or less allied to 

 Salmo clwrkii, two are especially interesting to the angler — 

 the Crescent trout and the Beardslee trout. Both are 

 found only in the deep glacial lake in Clallam County, 

 Washington, known as Crescent Lake. The Crescent trout 

 is a fine game fish, reaching a weight of eight to ten 

 pounds. It s very deep steel-blue in color, with fine specks 

 and without red at the throat. The scales are as small 

 as those of the steelhead, but the head is not short. 

 In Crescent Lake, Admiral Beardslee also discovered the 

 Beardslee trout, to which his name has been given. It is 

 found in deeper water than the Crescent trout, and it is 

 larger, some specimens weighing from ten to fourteen 

 pounds. Its color is deep blue, dotted with small black 

 spots. The scales are as large as in the rainbow trout, about 

 one hundred and thirty in a lengthwise series, and the head 

 is long, making more than one-fourth the total length to the 

 base of the caudal. This is one of the finest trout known 

 in any country, and it should be planted in other deep lakes 

 before it is exterminated by the trout-hog, who is already 

 encamped on the shores of Lake Crescent. 



Another trout has been described from Lake Crescent as 

 Salmo bathacetor (Meek). It is certainly much like the 

 Crescent trout, of which it would seem to be a deep-water 

 variation. Near to Lake Crescent, but wholly separated 

 from it, is another mountain lake called Lake Southerland. 

 In this lake two other species or forms of trout are found, 



