2 -A REPORT UPON SALMON INVESTIGATIONS IN THE HEADWATERS OE 
THE COLUMBIA RIVIMT IN THE STATE OE IDAHO, IN 181)5, TOG ETl IE, R 
WITH NOTES UPON THE EISHES OBSERVED IN THAT STATE IN 181)4 
AND 181)5. 
By barton warren EVERMANN, Ph. D., 
Ichthyologist of the United States Fish Commissio?!. 
The investigations concerning tbe physical ami natnral-history features of the 
Columbia Eiver basin begun by the Commission in 1892 ^Yere continued in 1895. Tlie 
work in 1894 and 1895 was directed chietiy to an inquiry into the spawning liabits of 
the redtish (Oucorhynchus nerlm) and the chinook salmon (0. Ucliau' ytsclia) . 
The preliminary inquiry made in 1894 by Dr. J. T. Scovell and the writer at Big 
Payette Lake and in the headwaters of Salmon liiver, the report ui^on which has 
been published,* indicated that those two localities afford excellent facilities for 
the study of those two important species at spawning time. They were therefore 
selected as the field of operations tor 1895, and a party was sent to each. 
Mr. Thomas M. Williams, of Stanford University, was sent to Big Payette Lake, 
where he arrived Jirly 19 and remained until September 25. Prof. Seth E. Meek, of 
Arkansas State University, and Mr. Uorman B. Scofield, of Stanford University, were 
sent to the headwaters of Salmon Eiver. They arrived at Sawtooth Jidy 17, estab- 
lished camp on Pettit Lake July 22, and were joined August 9 by Dr. Oliver P. Jenkins 
and the writer. On August 28 the camp was moved to Alturas Lake, and on Septem- 
ber 18 it was again moved to Alturas Creek in the valley near Salmon Eiver. Dr. 
Jenkins remained in the field until August 29 and Professor Meek until Se]rtember 12. 
On September 11 Mr. William Barnum, of the Fish Commission, joined the party, and 
on September 24 the work was brought to a close. 
Mr. Williams’s field of operations was limited innctically to Big Payette Lake 
and its inlet and outlet, while that of the other party covered much more territory, 
embracing, as it did, the entire group of Eedfish Lakes, except Stanley Lake. 
As already stated, the inquiry made in 1894 showed that both the redfish and 
Chinook salmon have important .spawning-grounds in each of these regions, and it 
was to these two species that the present investigations were primarily directed. 
The oi)portunity to study the other species of fishes found in those waters was not, 
however, neglected, and a large amount of information bearing upon their habits and 
geographic distribution was obtained. 
There are, as is well known, two forms of the redfish which breed in the inlets to 
certain lakes in Idaho. These two forms seem to agree in halfits and in all structural 
characters except size, and apparently constitute a single species. The individuals of 
‘ A Preliminary Report njiou Salmon Investigations in Idaho in 1894, by Barton W. Evermaun. 
<^Bull. U. S. Fish Comm, for 1895, 253-284. 
151 
