SALMON INVESTIGATIONS IN IDAHO IN 1895 
1 (i5 
At the lower end of tlie lake, toward the left shore, another important inlet is 
received. This stream has its rise in several forks among the high mountains at the 
head of the lake, and Hows down a narrow canyon nearly parallel with and only a short 
distance from the left shore of the lake. Near its lower end it makes a somewhat 
abinpt turn to the right and eiders the lake only a few rods from the outlet. This 
creek is the longest of the inlets, and probably carries as much water as all of tlie 
others. It has its sources in the ])ermanent snow-tields, among the ragged, beetling 
crags about the head of this lake, iirobably the most rugged and inaccessible of all 
the peaks of the Sawtooth Eange. 
At or near the heads of these inlets are several small lakes, all very cold, and 
most of them apparently quite deei). One of the most beautiful and most interesting 
is at the head of the left branch of the lower itdet. Its altitude is about 9,500 feet, 
and its area perhaps 10 acres. Its shores on all sides are of bed rock, and very steep. 
The lake occupies a circular depression in the rock, the origin of which is not easy 
to explain. At the oidlet the water Hows over a narrow ledge (d’ rock in situ, and at 
all other places the shores are of rock, in places rising from 10 to 400 feet above the 
lake. There has been no damming by moraines, and the great de])th of the basin and 
the character of the shores preclude the belief that it is of glacial origin, exceiA upoTi 
the supposition that the descent of the glacier was very abrupt and that its force was 
exerted as a gouging agent, deepening the hole at the fool of the iieak without wearing 
away the rock below. 
On the right side is a snow-field of considerable size, whose base is laved by the 
waters of the lake and which reaches up among the inaccessible spires which tower 
several hundred feet above. This lake is quite deep, as is shown by the dark, blue 
color of the water, and the descent is veiy abrupt; nowhere, except at the outlet, is 
there room for one to walk along the water’s edge. The outlet of this lake has numerous 
falls and cascades, and can not be ascended by fish. 
The immediate shores of Redfish Lake and the immense morainic ridges lying on 
either side of it are covered with a heavy growth of Murray pine aiul Douglas fir. 
Depth . — Redfish Lake is the deepest of this groirp of lakes which we sounded. 
We were not able in the time at our command to run systematic lines of soundings 
across the lake. Several soundings were made in the upper end, and depths ranging 
from 100 to 296 feet were found. The greatest deptli, 296 feet, was obtained near the 
left shore and not far from the upper end of the lake. The lower portion of the lake 
is somewhat shallower. 
Temperature . — This lake is apparently colder than Alturas or Pettit Lake. On 
August 21, readings of the _surface temperature were taken at various times and at 
several different places, and 61° was the uniform result obtained. That of the main 
upper inlet at its mouth was 44°; that of the lower inlet was tlie same. 
The fishes of this lake are, so far as known, the same as those of Alturas and 
Pettit lakes. The large redfish are known to come to this lake, but none came in 1895, 
so far as wm were able to learn. 
The outlet of Redfish Lake is quite a stream, carrying x)erhaps twice as much 
water as is discharged by Alturas Lake. It is broad, with a rocky bed, and Hows 
through a relatively level and a narrow valley. A short <listance below the lake it 
flows through a small, unnamed lake, in the same manner as the outlet of Alturas Lak(*. 
