BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 49 
Vol. VII, I¥o. 4. Washington, D. €. Jime 6, 1887. 
The Salmo irideus , or red-banded trout of the McCloud River of Cali- 
fornia, having been introduced into Atlantic waters, it may interest 
you to learn how this variety of fish has thrived when intrqduced into 
the coast range streams of this State which empty directly into the 
Pacific Ocean. 
On the 12th day of April, 1887, John L. Durkee, while fishing in a 
small stream which empties into the Pacific Ocean in Marin County f 
about 7 miles from Saucelito, caught a red-banded trout ( Salmo irideus) 
that weighed about 14 pounds. The fish was a female, and had come 
into the stream to spawn, it being in a gravid condition, so that about 
a quart of eggs (estimated) flowed from it while being taken from the 
water. When taken to Saucelito, about five hours later, the fish weighed 
just 12J pounds. 
This trout was undoubtedly one of a lot planted by the late Mr. S. R. 
Throckmorton, then fish commissioner of this State, in the stream where 
it was caught on property belonging then to that gentleman. The mark- 
ing was a brilliant cochineal color on the gill-cover, say 2 J inches in diam- 
eter, and a well-defined stripe or band of the same color 2 inches wide 
extending from the gill-opening down the median line to and including 
the tail. So far as I know, the largest specimen of this variety of trout 
taken in the native stream (McCloud River) has weighed 6 pounds, the 
fish never migrating from that place to the ocean, a distance of some- 
where about 400 miles. This species of trout, under the direction of the 
late commissioners, Messrs. Redding and Throckmorton, were placed 
in many of the streams of Sonoma, Marin, San Mateo, and Santa Cruz 
Counties which empty directly into the Pacific. From these short 
streams, ranging from 30 to 150 miles long, the fish have ample oppor- 
tunities to migrate to the ocean, and do so, having been taken in brack- 
ish water at the mouths of the streams on various occasions. They seem 
not only to thrive faster (from abundance of food, no doubt), but take on 
an outer coating of color (like marking of lead), which they afterwards 
lose after being in fresh water some time. I think these fish would do 
well in the short streams along the Atlantic shore between Virginia and 
Maine. 
Some years since the then fish commissioners, B. B. Redding and S. 
R. Throckmorton, introduced two lots of young striped bass or rock- 
13.— FISH-CULTURE ©IV THE PACIFIC COAST, 
By HORACE H. DU NN, 
[From a letter to Prof. 8. F. Baird.] 
