44 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION 
able by trout. No account is here taken of the uumerous falls in small brooks or in 
mountain torrents uusuited to fish life: 
Great Falls of the Yellowstone, 308 feet high. 
Upper Falls of the Yellowstone', 109 feet high. 
Cry.stal Falls in Cascade Creek, 129 feet high. 
Tower Falls in Tower Creek, 132 feet high. 
Undine Falls in Lava Creek, 60 feet high. 
Lower Falls in Lava Creek, 50 feet high. 
Wraith Falls in Lu 2 )ine Creek, 100 feet high. 
Falls in Slough Creek. 
08i>rey Falls in Gardiner Eiver, 150 feet high. 
Rustic Falls in Glen Creek, 70 feet high. 
Outside the Park the falls in Clarke’s Pork of the Yellowstone exclude fish from 
that river, and perhaps the great Shoshone and American Falls in Snake River 
exclude from the upper part of the stream the fauna of the Lower Columbia. Another 
supposed obstacle to the spread of fish life in the Yellowstone Park is the presence of 
the innumerable hot springs, solfataras, and geysers, for which the region is famous. 
Although these springs exist in almost every lake basin, eahou, or other depression 
in the Park, we do not think that in their present condition, at least, they would stand 
ill the way of the stocking of the streams and lakes with fishes. 
The water of the geysers aud other calcareous and silicious springs does not 
appear to be objectionable to fishes. lu Yellowstone Lake trout are especially abun- 
dant about the hot overflow from the Lake Geyser Basin. The hot water flows for a 
time on the surface, and trout may be taken immediately under these currents. Trout 
have also been known to rise to a fly through a scalding hot surface current. They 
also linger in the neighborhood of hot springs in the bottom of the lake. This is prob- 
ably owing to the abuudauce of food in these warm waters, but the fact is evident that 
geyser water does not kill trout. 
In Heart Lake trout were found most iflentiful about the mouth of the Warm 
Witch Creek. Suckers and chubs {Leuciscus atrarius) ascend this creek for some dis- 
tance, although half its water comes from geysers and hot springs. The chubs are 
found in water in which the temperature is about 85° Fahr. 
The Hot River, which drains the Mammoth Hot Springs, flows into Gardiner 
River. Trout abound about the mouth of this stream, and here, as in numerous other 
places in the Park, the conventional trick of catching a tront in cold and scalding it 
in hot water is possible. Below the mouth of this Hot River young suckers {Catosto- 
imis griseus) were found in a temperature of about 88°, and young trout in a tempera- 
ture of about 75°. 
Miller’s Thumbs abound in the Gibbon River, about the hot springs. Three 
were found boiled in the edge of the river below Elk Park, at the mouth of a hot tribu- 
tary. The volume of hot water poured into any river is greatest in the Firehole, 
below the upper Geyser Basin. The stream, however, is hardly warm, and the water 
has little mineral taste, though the abundant vegetation gives it something of the 
flavor of stewed plants. Even this stream, it would seem, is probably not so hot nor 
so heavily charged with mineral substance as to be unfit for trout. Its waters con- 
stitute a very dilute alkaline silicious solution. The following analysis of the waters 
of Firehole River is given by Gooch and Whitfield:* 
Virginia Cascades in Gibbon River, 60 feet high. 
Gibbon Falls in Gibbon River, 80 feet bigb. 
Keppler’s Cascade in Firehole River, 80 feet bigb. 
Firehole Falls in Firehole River, 60 feet bigb. 
Falls in Lewis River, 80 and 50 feet bigb. 
Moose Falls on Crawfish Creek. 
Union Falls on Mountain Ash Creek. 
Terraced Falls and Rainbow Falls on Falls River. 
Iris Falls and Colonnade Falls on Becbler River. 
Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey, No. 47, page 57. 
