A REPORT UPON INVESTIGATIONS IN THE COLUMBIA RIVER BASIN, WITH 
DESCRIPTIONS OE POUR NEW SPECIES OE PISHES. 
BY 
CHARLES H. GILBERT, Pi-ofessor of Zoology, Leland Stanford Junior University, 
AND 
BARTON W. EVERMANN, Ichthyologist of the U. S. Fish Commission. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The investigations upon which this report is primarily based were provided for 
by two items in the sundry civil bill, approved August 5, 1892. The tirst of these 
items authorized the expenditure, from the apirropriation for inquiry resijecting food- 
fishes, of the sum of $2,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, “in examining 
the Clarke’s Fork of the Columbia River, with the view to ascertain the obstructions 
which pre\'ent the ascent of salmon in said river to the Flathead Lake and adjacent 
waters.” The second item provided “ for investigation and report respecting the 
advisability of establishing a hatching station at some suitable point in the State of 
Washington, $1,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary.” 
The purposes of these two investigations were very intimately related. Any 
inquiry regarding obstructions which might interfere with the movements of salmon 
in any of the tributaries of the Columbia would have a bearing upon the advisa- 
bility of establishing a salmon hatchery at any point in that river basin. These two 
inquiries were therefore conducted as one, and the results are presented in a single 
report. 
This work was begun in September, 1892, by Dr. Charles E. Gorham, engineer 
and architect of the Commission, assisted by Mr. Barton A. Bean, of the U. S. 
National Museum, and Mr. A. J. Woolman, teacher of science in the high school at 
South Bend, Ind. Dr. Gorham died before the completion of the investigation, and 
Prof. Evermann was instructed by the Commissioner to continue the work during the 
summer of 1893. While carrying on these investigations he had the assistance of Drs. 
Charles H. Gilbert, Olivier P. Jenkins, and W. W. Thoburn, and Mr. Cloud. Rutter, all 
of Leland Stanford Junior LTniversity. The work was taken up by us at Pocatello, 
Idaho, August 2, it having been determined to include an examination of the obstruc- 
tions in Snake River and a preliminary study of the natural-history features of the 
upper waters of the Columbia basin, with special reference to the present or former 
occurrence of salmon in those streams. 
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