The Golden Trout of Cottonwood Lakes. 195 



My line had no sooner fallen in the whirling foam be- 

 neath the falls when from all sides dark streaks seemed 

 to rush toward it, and in a twinkling it was swishing 

 through the water. I did not play him, nor did I let him 

 play with me. The vision of the sputtering frying pan 

 and the browning fish was before me, and with a heave 

 ho! such as one uses to pull out a sucker or a carp, I 

 yanked him up on the bank behind me. He was not very 

 big, perhap ten inches long, but oh, the colors! They 

 were too brilliant to seem natural. From head to tail a 

 broad scarlet stripe stretched, interrupted here and there 

 by blotches of brown ; beneath, a beautiful canary yellow 

 merging to orange, while the tips of both tail and fins 

 were white, and faintly discernable, as though washed 

 over by the other colors, were scores of speckles. The 

 tail, heavily spotted, was large and gave the impression 

 of power, while voracity was evident in the big jaws 

 armed with sharp teeth. 



It was not until a year or two later that Dr. Jordan 

 got hold of one and named it Salmo mykiss aqua-bonita 

 — surely a beautiful trout of beautiful waters. 



But aside from its scientific baptism it had been known 

 as the Golden trout for years by the few people who had 

 seen it and the many who had heard of it. 



After the first it was easy. Any day one could go but 

 a few yards from the camp and catch all that were needed, 

 no matter how large the family to be fed. 



The largest fish were found in the riffies, while any size 

 from six to ten inches could be found in almost any hole. 

 In fact I never saw trout so plentiful, and with the crude 

 appliances at hand I had no trouble in landing ten in 

 fifteen minutes one day when I chose to time the opera- 

 tion. The largest fish measured just eleven and a quartet 

 inches in length, and the next year on reporting this to 

 the fish commission I was told that this was the largest 

 on record. Cottonwood Creek is almost free from brush 

 and with the trout as unused to man as they were, the 

 fishing was ideal. 



