138 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



The species were Oncorhynchus chouicha, Salmo irideus and Salvelinus fontinalis. 



Dr. Bellesme wrote as follows concerning the rainbow : " Its flesh is sometimes 

 pale with a tinge of yellow, sometimes salmon color, according to environment, less 

 delicate than that of the quinnat salmon ; somewhat hard. 



" It grows more rapidly than the species native in France. It is practicable to 

 bring it in ten months to the weight of 200 grams. It endures a high temperature, 

 being able to live in roily water of 77 degrees, while the brown trout succumbs at 

 64 2-5 degrees in France. 



" It is certain that the rainbow trout under the same conditions as the quinnat 

 salmon, is far from having the same delicacy. Its flesh is somewhat hard and dry, 

 resembling that of the whitefish, while the quinnat has the fine, tender and creamy 

 flesh of the Scotch trout or the very young Atlantic salmon." 



In Bohemia and Bavaria the fish culturists have succeeded better with rainbow 

 trout than with the quinnat salmon, and they have bestowed upon it unmerited 

 praise in Dr. Bellesme's opinion. He thinks the mortality among females of quinnat 

 salmon during the spawning operations accounts for the preference of the Germans 

 for the rainbow. 



In the rainbow this mortality does not occur, either because the scales are more 

 firmly fixed, or because the fish struggles less. In this species the females can be 

 utilized as breeders many successive years. 



Karl Wozelka-Iglau, translated from Deutsche Landwirthschaftliclic Presse, in 

 Bulletin United States Fish Commission for 1895, says concerning fish culture in 

 Bohemia : " Among the different varieties of trout preference must be given to the 

 California rainbow trout (Salmo irideus) above our brook trout [Salmo f arid), because 

 it grows much quicker, makes an excellent article of food and is not very choice in 

 the matter of its food." 



RESULTS OF INTRODUCTION. — The first attempt at artificial fertilization of the 

 eggs was made by Livingston Stone on the McCloud River, Cal., in 1876 or 1877. 



The following account of operations with the rainbow in Michigan is from the 

 Eleventh Report of the Michigan Fish Commission, 1895, pages 7 and 30: 



" In 1890 the hatching of the rainbow trout was discontinued owing to the 

 unsatisfactory results of the plants that had been made in previous years, and to the 

 fact that a much lower percentage of eggs were hatched from rainbow trout under 

 similar conditions than from the brook trout ; nor did the adult rainbow trout carry- 

 as well in ponds under domestication. At the time the breeding of this fish was 

 discontinued, the most of the parent fish held in the ponds had become affected 

 with some disease which had apparently become epidemic, and this also had its 

 influence in causing us to abandon their further culture. 



