HOW THE TROUT CAME TO CALIFORNIA. 277 
‘came up the trout? from the Snake River to 
Utah Lake, Jordan River, Bear River, and Provo 
River. It came into all the sparkling streams of 
the Uintah and the Wahsatch which now find their 
end in the salt and alkali of the Great Basin. The 
trout in Utah Lake are large with large scales and 
small spots, and the spots are scattered over the 
body fore and aft as in the trout of the Columbia. 
Another offshoot from the Columbia Trout is 
found in the bed of the old Lake Lahontan,—a 
glacial lake now long since drained, in whose basin 
lie Pyramid Lake, Truckee River, and the great 
alkaline sink of the Humboldt. In Lake Tahoe,? 
the most beautiful lake in all our country, the Tahoe 
trout appears to its best ‘advantage. It is a big 
strong gamy fish, with small scales and large black 
spots, the spots being scattered over head and belly 
as well as on the tail. The Tahoe? Trout is found 
1 The trout of the Great Basin of Utah are Salmo mykiss 
virginalis. 
2 The Trout of Lake Tahoe is Salmo mykiss henshawi Gill & 
Jordan, named for its discoverer, the well-known ornithologist. 
The same trout is found also in Feather River and Moquelumne 
Rivers, both on the west side of the Sierra Nevada. These facts 
of distribution were long a mystery, but it has been lately found 
that both were the result of artificial plants like that which has 
brought the California Rainbow Trout into Truckee River in 
competition with the “cut-throat ” Aenshawi, Dr. Willard Platt 
of Prattsville, California, planted in 1884, 1,000 young trout from 
Truckee River in the streams of the Big Meadows of Plumas. 
About the same time trout were taken from the Carson River and 
placed in the Blue Lakes at the head of the Moquelumne, in 
Alpine County. 
8 The anglers find two kinds of trout in Lake Tahoe, — the Black 
Trout, or “ Snipe,” which reaches a small size, and the Silver Trout, 
which reaches splendid dimensions. The largest Silver Trout on 
record was taken near Tahoe City and sent in 1878 to General 
Grant. It weighed twenty-eight pounds. I have carefully compared 
