THE TRANSPLANTING OF TROUT IN THE 

 STREAMS OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. 



DAVID STARR JORDAN. 



The rivers of California contain four well marked species of 

 trout: (i) The rainbow trout, Saluio indcus, in tlie streams of 

 the Sierra foothills, and in all the streams of the coast rau-e ; 

 (2) the steel-head trout, for which the oldest and therefore cor- 

 rect name seems to be Salvio rivnlaris, rather than Saluio ^-aird- 

 neri. This is found in the coastwise streams onl\-. whence it 

 runs regularly to the sea, the rainbow^ trout running onl\ when 

 the sea is conveniently near ; (3) the cut-throat trout, Sahiio 

 clarki, found only in the streams of the northern and noilhwest- 

 ern counties ; and (4) the Tahoe trout, Salmo hens/iaz^n, a deriva- 

 tive of the cut-throat found on the east flank of the Sierras, in 

 the tributaries of the extinct Lake Lahontan. 



Subspecies or variants have developed from these, especially 

 from Salmo iridais. The typical rainbow trout is found in the 

 streams about San Francisco Bay. A slight variant called var. 

 Shasta is found in the upper Sacramento and in the nf^rthern 

 Sierras. With it, but rare, is var. stona, the Xissui trout. In 

 the Kings and Kern rivers is the smaller scaled varietw i^ilhi-rh, 

 and ixom. gilbertix^ descended the dwarf golden trout, var. a}:;ua- 

 bonita, found only in Volcano (Whitney) Creek on the l)anks of 

 Mount Whitney, above the high waterfall sometimes called 

 Agua Bonita. The typical Tahoe trout, Sahno lunshawi, 

 spawns in the streams, but in the depths of the lake is a well 

 marked subspecies 6f large size spawning in the lake, called var. 

 tahoensis. 



The distribution of these species is well made out, but certain 

 anomalies were noticed, especially in the distribution of the Tahoe 

 trout. All these anomalies have been found to be due t.) trans- 

 planting by the hand of man. For the beneht of future stu- 

 dents of trout I place these facts on record. 



885 



