4B0 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
tDfiC. a, 1899, 
chosen words demanded that the bear return the stolen 
whisky to its rightful owner. Instead of the desired effect, 
the bear seemed to take the matter as a huge joke, and 
with a broad grin took another hooker from the demi- 
john and began to dance the "Babcock Twist" in a man- 
ner that made the old door rattle. 
A groan went up from the hunters as they saw the 
much-prized whisky disappear to satisfy the apparently 
long thirst of the bear. 
"Boys," shouted the gas man, "we've got to take the 
law in our own hands and lynch the crittur; he won't lis- 
ten to law or reason." 
In an instant six Winchesters were drawn up and 
sighted at a vital spot on the bear. There was a moment 
of intense suspense as they waited for the signal to fire, 
which did not come. Instead the gas man said: "Hold 
on, boys! My gun is only loaded for woodchuck, and I 
fear it is not safe to shoot a fi'tin' b'ar with so small a 
charge." 
"My gun is in mighty bad shape too," said Mose Rum- 
sey. of Snappin' Turtle Creek. 
■ There also seemed to be something wrong with Long 
Ben Babcock's weapon. It was now discovered that they 
did not have a single gun fit to do battle with such a for- 
midable foe as the half tipsy bear. 
A council of war was callgd and Zig Slawson, of Baulky 
Swamp, proposed that a committee be at once dispatched 
for Jack Howe, the only man in the mountains who has 
a record of killing .three bears in one day. ■ 
Long Ben Babcock was delegated to hurry after Jack, 
whom he found oiling his expr-ess gun. When Jack 
learned that he was wanted to perpetuate the good record 
for bravery of the hunters of the county, he quickly 
buckled on his cartridge belt, and an hour later the skin 
of the jovial bear was pinned to the ground. 
About one-half of the fluid was recovered and divided 
among the hunters, and there was great rejoicing in Stove 
Pipe City that night. Redner. 
New York, Nov, 15 
Steelheads and Salmon. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In response to the courteous questions which Podgers 
propounds to me in your issue of Nov. 4, regarding the 
Pacific salmon and the steelhead trout, permit me to call 
attention to what Dr. David Starr Jordan says of the Pa- 
cific salmon : "They were first recognized in 1731 by that 
most exact of early observers, Steller, who described and 
distinguished them with perfect accuracy under their Rus- 
sian vernacular names. * * * These species, may 
be called (i) The quinnat or king salmon (Oncorhynchus 
tschawytscha) . (2) The blue-back salmon or redfish 
(O. nerka). (3) The silver salmon (0. kisutch). (4) 
The dog salmon (O. keta), and (5) The humpback sal- 
mon (O. gorlmscha) ." Speaking of this genus, he says: 
*'That it differs from all the rest of the salmon family, in 
the fact that the number of rays in the anal fin is from 
fourteen to twenty, while in all the salmon and trout on 
the other side of the Atlantic this fin contains no more 
than eleven raj^s. The usual number is nine to ten. 
These fish are, therefore, in strictness, not salmon at 
all, but something more intensely salmon than the salmon 
of Europe itself is. They have, therefore, been placed in 
another genus known as Oncorhynchus. For the lack 
of any other common name, they are always spoken of, 
and will always be canned, as long as the canning industry 
lasts, under the name of salmon. The Chinook (Indian) 
name Quinnat was early applied to them, and if we feel 
the need of some other name to distinguish them from 
real salmon, we may call the Pacific Coast salmon quin- 
nat or quinnat salmon." 
Of the steelhead trout. Dr. Jordan says, in speaking of 
Pacific Coast trout: "Another California trout is the 
so-called steelhead, often known in California as salmon 
tretit, a, fish really very much like the salmon trout of 
Europe, * * * The name comes from the color of 
its head and the hardness of the bones of its skull as 
compared with the bones of the quinnat salmon. Its 
scientific name is Salmo gairdneri, named for Dr. Gaird- 
ner, of Fort Vancouver, a bright, young naturalist in his 
day, in the employ of the fur company, who first dis- 
covered the species and sent it to John Richardson," 
These quotations are taken from a lecture delivered in 
1891 by Dr. Jordan before the California Academy of 
Sciences. Until this distinguished scientist called the at- 
tention of the Coast to the fact that the steelhead was a 
trout, it was generally known and called a salmon, and 
even now, eight years after, the fish is still commonly 
called a salmon. I 
On the Smith, Klamath, Eel, Navarro and other Cali- 
fornia coast streams the question is still being discussed. 
I have been told, in substance, by many an old fisherman in 
this region, that he had lived there for many a year and 
that the fish had always been called a salmon, and was a 
salmon, and he would be d d if he thought any doctor 
from the East could come out there and expect him to 
believe that the salmon was a trout, the parent of all the 
brook and mountain trout in the streams of his section. 
Even among our anglers, few call the steelhead a trout. 
Many of our expert anglers, who kpow them to be trout, 
and that special laws regarding their capture have been 
enacted, continue to call them salmon. Why is it that 
so few anglers take interest in learning the names and 
the history of the fish they so ardently seek? 
As Dr. Jordan has shown, the steelhead might easily 
be confounded with the Atlantic salmon, but on the 
Pacific there is no such excuse. Podgers and others may 
easily familiarize themselves with the outward distinctive 
differences between the quinnat and the steelhead. In the 
former the anal fin — the fin between the vent and the tail 
— ^has from fourteen to twenty fully developed rays, and 
the inside of the mouth is black; with the steelhead the 
anal fin never has over thirteen fully developed rays, and 
the inside of the mouth is white. Then again, Podgers, 
the adult salmon does not feed while in fresh water, and 
dies after spawning, while the steelhead does feed in 
fresh water, and is particularly ravenous on its return 
from its spawning^^beds to the sea. 
Regarding the statement that the salmon does not feed 
while in fresh water, let mc say that it. is true that the 
quinnat in the McCloud and other streams is occasionally 
taken with hook baited with roe, and that the young males 
— commonly called grilse — are taken with the fly, but the 
fact remains that they do not feed, tlie stomach being con- 
tracted and without food of any kind while in fresh water. 
Probably tlie fish picks up the roe or seizes the fly in idle 
the shoulders, so that a very distinct hump is formed; 
this is more developed in Oncorhynchus gorbuscha (the 
humpback), but is found in all. 
"(5) The scales disappear, especially on the back, by the 
growth of spongy skin. 
"(6) The color changes from silvery to various shades 
of black and red or blotchy, according to species. The 
blue-back turns red, the dog salmon a dull blotchy red 
BLUEBACK SALMON (HOOK- JAWED MALE). 
sport, or, possibly, in remembrance of its younger days in 
the river before it knew of the richer fields for food which 
later it found in the sea. Now that I have spoken of tlie 
AlcCloud, let me say to you, Podgers, that from my own 
investigation and from the knowledge gained in talking 
with Dr. Jordan, Livingston Stone and John Babcock, I 
do not believe that the sea run of steelhead ever reach the 
McCloud. Unquestionably, the large salmon-like fish you 
caught there with roe was a simon pure quinnat salmon 
(O. tschawytscha). They are more commonly taken 
and the quinnat generally blackish. * * * At the time 
of the spring run all are symmetrical. In the- fall, all 
males, of whatever species, are more or less distorted." 
To Jordan's descriptions let me instance that 1 have 
seen the heads of the male quinnat that were so distorted 
that you could place your hand in the side of the mouth 
and close down the jaw until they met at the ends and yet 
leave the hand free to be removed without striking the 
doglike teeth. The head of the dog salmon undergoes the 
most change, and in the Navarro, Garcia and other 
HUMPBACK SALMON. 
there with a Wilson spoon — either copper or silver color. 
You will find the sport — once attained — of casting this 
spoon for these salmon much more engaging and reliable 
than taking them with roe; then, too, the large rainbow 
trout of the McCloud will often take the Wilson spoon 
when they will not come up for a fly. 
Podgers-, the fish which you caught in Monterey Bay, 
near Santa Cruz and the town of Monterey, with spoon 
and sardines, is also the true quinnat salmon. I have 
never known of a steelhead being taken there in that way, 
neighboring streams is usually known as the "hooked- 
nose" or "hooked-bill" salmon. 
It may be interesting to note again that the. salmon 
that enter the large coast streams pass as far up stream 
as possible — those that enter during the spring months 
passing to the extreme headwaters — where they deposit !! 
' their spawn and then, strange as it may appear, die. Few.'j 
if any, return to the sea. The steelhead, on the contrary, ; 
enter the large and small streams, pass to favorable 
gravel beds — they prefer the small tributaries rather than 
QUINNAT. 
though the steelhead must be in Monterey Bay, for he 
enters the estuaries of the coast streams that empty into 
that bay and passes up into the streams to spawn. 
Regarding the "hooked-nosed salmon" Podgers speaks 
of, they are the breeding males of the salmon. The heads 
of all the males of all varieties of the Pacific salmon 
undergo a mai-ked change as the breeding season ap- 
proaches. Of these changes, Dr. Jordan says: "As the 
season advances, the difference between the males and 
females becomes more and more marked, and keeps pace 
the main stream — where they spawn, and then, the water 
permitting, return to the sea. The jaws of the male steel- 
head undergo but little change as compared with the 
salmon, but there is quite a marked change during the 
breeding period. The steelhead also assumes a band of 
. red along the side, but nothing like so marked as tlic 
salmon. With the steelhead it often occurs that before 
spawning is accomplished the water in the stream falls 
to so low a stage as to prevent the return to the sea. and 
the fish is obliged to remain in the deep pools until the 
GAIRDNER S TROUT — ^YOUNG. 
with the development of the milt, as is shown by dissec- 
tion. The males have : 
"(i) The premaxillaries and the tip of the lower jaw 
more and more prolonged ; both of the jaws become finely, 
strongly and often extravagantly hooked, so that either 
they shut by the side of each other like shears, or else 
the motith cannot be closed. 
"(2) The front teeth become very long and canine- 
like, their growth proceeding very rapidly until they are 
often one-half inch long. 
''(3) The teeth of the vomer and tongue often dis- 
appear. 
"(4) The body grows more compressed and deeper at 
streams again rise. This will account for the presence of 
what is, on the Pacific Coast, called "landlocked salmon." 
These landlocked steelheads are usually much deterior- 
ated in flesh and flavor and have lost much of the game- 
ness that has so endeared them to the heart of the angler ; 
for, know you, Podgers, that the steelhead has no equal 
in fresh water as a game fish. The salmon of the East 
or of Monterey Bay, where you find him at his best on 
the Pacific Coast, does not equal a "fresh run" steelhead — 
a fish that has just entered fresh water from the sea — as 
game fish. No, Podgers, when you hook and are pla} 
ing a steelhead, don't lose your interest in him because 
he is not a salmon, for fights better, "eats as well," and 
