436 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
can now be caught quite plentifully. The integrity of their characteristics in all their virgin beauty 
is maintained. A number of these fish were caught during the past summer in Blackwood Creek, 
Lake Tahoe. 
About four years ago a few of these fish were planted in a small lake on the mountain side back 
of McKinney’s place, Lake Tahoe. Last year Mr. McKinney told me that a number of eastern trout 
had been caught in that little lake, one of which weighed 3 pounds. He said they were fierce fighters 
and had a delicious flavor. Some of these eastern trout have been caught 30 miles down the river 
from the place where they were first planted in the North Fork of the American River. It seems to 
me very probable that the eastern brook trout, as they become older and larger, will drop farther and 
farther down the main stream, and ascend other branches to spawn, and thus becoming acclimated will 
gradually stock all the streams in the State accessible from the first stream in which they were planted. 
Mr. Jolin P. Babcock, in response to an inquiry, contributes the following inter- 
esting notes on the eastern brook trout in California: 
The fontinalis has been given a very wide distribution in the streams of the State, almost every 
stream having been stocked at different times since the fish’s introduction in 1872. 
None of the plants in the immediate coast streams has been successful. In the small streams 
of the higher altitudes the fish has done fairly well. 
Take the Truckee basin : The Nevada and California commissions have made liberal plants in 
Lake Tahoe. A few have been taken from the lake. Our men seining for spawning mykiss in spring 
of 1895 took one fontinalis that weighed 3f pounds. It is highly marked and of a deep, stocky build; 
we have it in the office. It is the only fontinalis taken in the lake with our seine, though we have 
taken many thousands of cut-throats. Of the streams that come into Tahoe from the west, Black- 
wood and Taylor creeks afford the best fontinalis fishing; the trout, though not large, are common. 
Very few specimens have been taken from the Truckee River proper, but in a number of its small 
tributaries they have been and are doing well, notably in Prosser Creek and its very small tributary, 
Alder Creek. A few fontinalis weighing over 2 pounds have been taken from Prosser Creek. In 
Alder Creek the brook trout predominate, as they do in Cold Stream, a small creek above the town 
of Truckee, but in none of the other small streams of the region does the fontinalis exceed 20 per 
cent of the catch, while the rainbow trout ( Salmo irideus) introduced to these waters exceeds 70 per cent 
of the catch for the past four years. 
In Lake of the Woods, a small sheet of water above and near Webber Lake, in Sierra County, 
specimens of fontinalis were taken the past season (1895) that weighed over 3 pounds, and one 2-pounder 
was taken from Webber Lake. 
The brook trout have done well in the headwaters of American, Yuba, and Feather rivers, 
though they confine themselves to the smaller waters. The same may be said of the small streams in 
the Shasta region, the small creeks around the town of Sisson being well stocked. Large plants have 
been made in Sacramento and McCloud rivers, but no fish have been taken except in headwaters of 
small streams. 
In the Klamath region they have not been a success. 
In the Yosemite Valley country the plants have been very successful, and some fine fishing is to 
be had in Bridal Veil Creek and near Wawona in some of the lakes. 
The fish placed in the King River region are reported as doing well. 
In southern California, in spite of repeated efforts, they have not done well. 
Speaking of the introduction of these fish in general, it can not be said to have been as successful 
as anticipated. They do not seem to hold their own against the natives; they have added but little 
to the attractions of the sportsmen, who do not consider them the equal of either the cut throat or 
rainbow trout in gameness or flavor. They take the same flies as the natives. In Lake of the Woods, 
however, they take the spoon only, and can not be called to the surface with flies. The commission 
will make no further efforts to propagate these fish. We obtained the main supply of fontinalis spawn 
from Marlette Lake, in Nevada. 
About 1892 a hybrid between the brook trout and the Dolly Yarden trout ( Salve - 
linns malma) was produced at the Sisson hatchery of the California fish commission. 
Two thousand eggs of the latter fish were fertilized with brook-trout milt. The 
experiment has been repeated each year up to the present time, and a large number 
of small fry is on hand. Mr. Babcock writes, under date of December 18, 1895, that 
