38 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
The name dolly varden was in use for it at Soda Springs, California, at least as early 
as 1872. The McCloud Biver Indians call it the Wye-dar-deek-it. In the McCloud 
its weight varies from 2 to 15 pounds. According to Mr. JT. B. Campbell — 
It frequents the river from the junction (with the Pitt) to the spring, there being none above 
the spring and few near the river mouth. If one takes hold of the dolly varden it slips away nearly 
like an eel. The .species is very destructive to other trout, or any kind of fish. It spawns in Sep- 
tember and November. The eggs are about one-half the size of those of the common (rainbow) trout. 
The fish are very difficult to obtain. They will live in a small place where the common trout would 
not. I have kept them in a pond about 6 feet square for a month, where the rainbows would kill 
themselves in a short time. They appear to be more hardy. 
The average weight of this trout in the sea fishery at Kadiak is about 2^ pounds. 
It reaches a length of 30 inches, and individuals weighing 8 pounds are often taken. 
It increases in size to the northward. 
The dolly varden is a migratory species and passes much of its time in the sea 
near the river mouths; it enters the rivers late in the fall and descends in the spring. 
Mr. Washburn says that it arrives at St. Paul in April. It remains in the bay near 
St. Paul throughout the summer. Mr. Charles Hirsch states that it reaches Kari n k 
in the latter part of May and runs through the whole season. Dolly vardens of a 
pound or more can be found in the streams at any time during the summer. Mr. E. W. 
Kelson found them at Unalaska early in June, and in the Yukon in the same month, 
but he says they are most numerous in the fall just before and after the streams freeze 
over. They enter the rivers and go up to their headwaters for the purpose of spawn- 
ing. The spawning season is in winter and may begin very early in this part of the 
year. A female, opened on the beach at Karluk August 2, 1889, contained eggs which 
seemed to be nearly ripe. 
Individuals taken at sea sometimes have capelin in their stomachs. In Karluk 
Biver, near its mouth, I have seen them feeding on eggs of the red salmon, which had 
been thrown into the water from the fish-cleaning houses. On the 5th of August I 
found a female dolly varden with very small ovaries; this example was long and 
slender. On August 16 a spent or sterile malma was found above the rapids in a little 
stream tributary to Karluk Biver. At the head of Karluk Lake, August 19, was 
discovered a very much emaciated trout of this species, which was struggling in the 
water and nearly dead. The inside of its mouth was full of large lernaean parasites. 
The dolly varden spends the entire summer in salt water near the mouths of the 
rivers after it has reached a certain age; younger individuals remain in the rivers and 
lakes. Many thousands of these trout are caught in the seines hauled for salmon, and 
fisheries exist for this species alone in various localities. It is put up in pickle and 
sold in San Francisco. The demand there, however, is limited. 
Ko serious diminution of the supply of this trout has been observed. There is 
great destruction of the fish, however, at Karluk in the seining for red salmon, where 
thousands of dolly vardens are taken and left lying unused on the beach. Something 
should be done to prevent this waste of good fish. 
