CUT-THROAT TROUT: Salmo clarkii (Richardson). TAHOE TROUT: Salmo henshawi (Gill and Jordan). CRESCENT TROUT: Salmo crescentis (Jordan and Seale). THE TROUT AND SALMON OF THE PACIFIC COAST With Drawings from Nature by Sekko Shimada By David Starr Jordan TROUT It is now just a hundred original parentage, no doubt, was fron years ago that Meri- some sort of a land-locked salmon; their wether Lewis and Wil- original birthplace perhaps not a thousand liam Clark, encouraged miles from the Baltic Sea. Since that by Thomas Jefferson, time of their birthday, very long ago the Roosevelt of those trout have traveled up and down the riv- days, crossed the great ers, down into the sea and up another divide and explored the river, until they have reached from Scot- waters which we now call Columbia. land to Chihuahua, from Montana to the It was in the headwaters of the Co- Pyrenees, and whoever seeks them hon- lumbia that these explorers first met with estly anywhere in all this range shall find the true trout in America. William Clark, exceeding great reward. Whether he who was a judge of fine fishes, found it catches trout or not, it does not matter good, and thirty years later, when Sir he will be a better man for the breath John Richardson published his noble work of the forests and the wash of the moun- on the animals of the North, "Fauna- tain streams in which the trout makes its Boreali-Americana," he named this Co- home. lumbia River trout Salmo clarkii. CUT-THROAT TROUT. His specimens came from Astoria, Most primitive of the American spe- where they were collected by the enthusias- cies, no doubt, is the one named for Wil- tic surgeon-naturalist, Dr. Gairdner, then liam Clark. It was born in Alaska, and an employee of the great fur company, has worked its way southward and east- a man worthy of remembrance in the an- ward; southward as far as Eel Eiver in nals of the good men who knew fish. California, eastward across the divide into The word trout is of French origin, Montana; no great task, for on the swampy truite in modern French, and still earlier flat of Two Ocean Pass the head-streams from the late Latin word Trutta, which of the Yellowstone interlock with those becomes Trucha in Spanish-speaking of the Snake. It runs southward through- countries. In Europe, the name trout in out the great basin of Utah, once tribu- all its forms is used for black-spotted tary to the Snake, and more or less fishes only, those with red spots, as we changed, its descendants have peopled the shall see later, being called by other Platte, the Arkansas, the Rio Grande and names. the Colorado. ' All the true trout have come to Ameri- The Clark trout is usually known as the ca from Asia, and none have naturally Cut-throat trout, from the half-hidden crossed the great plains. For in the Great gash of deep scarlet which is always found Lake region, the Alleghanies and the val- just below the base of the lower jaw. This ley proper of the Mississippi the true trout gash of red is the sign manual of the are unknown. Sioux Indian, the Cut-throat among the But in Northern Europe, Siberia, fierce aborigines. Southern Alaska and throughout the This is the best mark of the Cut-throat Rocky Mountain region and the waters to trout, though it disappears in alcohol, the westward, trout are everywhere. Their and it is sometimes faintly shown in other THE PACIFIC MONTHLY. trout, especially in the large Rainbow been transplanted to waters other than trout of the Shasta region. Other marks those to which it is native. are the rather long h,ead, which forms TAHOE TROUT. nearly a fourth of the length of the body from the snout to the base of the caudal One of the most direct descendants of fin. Almost always there is a narrow line the Cut-throat trout is the Tahoe trout, of very slender teeth along the middle line which is confined to the streams and lakes of the base of the tongue, besides the of the desert of Nevada, the basin of the former Lake Lahontan. larger teeth which surround the edge of the tongue in all trout. The body is It is found in Lake Tahoe, where it was usually well spotted, and the spots are discovered by Dr. Henry W. Henshaw, small, there being none on the belly. But in 1877. It descends in the Truckee to no one can know a trout by its spots, be- Pyramid Lake, whence it comes in large cause the spots vary interminably. They numbers to the markets of San Fran- depend mostly on the character of the cisco. It is found also in Donner, Web- water. In the lakes they grow faint, and ber and Independence Lakes. It is found in the sea they vanish altogether, giving also in the Carson and the Humboldt,— place to a uniform silvery sheen. This is both once tributaries of the vanished true of all trout alike, American, Asiatic, glacial lake called Lahontan. From the and European. The color of the flesh Truckee it has been introduced into the varies equally. It seems to depend partly Feather, the Stanislaus and the Moke- on age, partly on the food. A diet of lumne, on the western slope of the Sierras. shrimps turns the flesh red, it is said, The Tahoe trout is plainly a Cut-throat, but the statement needs proving. The having the same red dashes under the size of trout varies as much as the color. throat, the same long head, small scales A species which is mature and spawns at and teeth on the base of the tongue. It six inches in the mountain brooks, may is, however, browner or yellower in color, reach a weight of ten or even twenty and the spots are always larger, covering pounds when taken in the sea. Whatever the belly as well as the back of the fish. food the fishes can get, they will turn The Tahoe trout usually weighs, when into trout, and the trout which cannot mature, two or three pounds, but in the get much are just as perfect as the others. depths of Lake Tahoe huge specimens The best mark of the Cut-throat trout weighing from seven to twenty-eight is found in the small scales. In a row pounds have been sometimes taken. from head to tail you will count from one hundred and fifty to one hundred and Those large trout called the Silver trout eighty. of Lake Tahoe (Salmo tahoensis) are sup- posed to spawn in the lake, and thus to The Cut-throat trout spawns in the form a subspecies more or less distinct spring. Those in the streams run up the from those which spawn in the brooks. smaller brooks, while those in the sea or As a food or as a game fish, the Tahoe the lakes seek shallower waters, either a trout is scarcely different from the ordi- stream or a sandbar in the lake. No trout nary Cut-throat of the Columbia. ever spawns in the sea. The Cut-throat CRESCENT TROUT. trout is hardy and vigorous, but its de- gree of energy depends on the character Of the many long-headed trout more or less allied to Salmo clarkii, two are of the streams. A trout in warm water especially interesting to the angler, the anywhere usually shows little fight. In Crescent trout and the Beardslee trout. the lakes, the Cut-throat rises to the Both are found only in the deep glacial spoon or the phantom minnow. In the lake in Clallam County, Washington, brooks, a fly, a grasshopper, or a bunch known as Crescent Lake. The Crescent of salmon eggs will usually engage its at- trout is a fine game fish, reaching a tention. This species is the most widely weight of eight to ten pounds. It is very distributed of the trout. It is one of the deep steel-blue in color, with fine specks handsomest and finest, yet it has rarely and without red at the throat. The scales THE TROUT AND SALMON OF THE PACIFIC COAST. BEARDSLEE TROUT : Salmo beardsleii (Jordan and Seale). are as small as those of the Steelhead, but the Bainbow trout, about one hundred and the head is not short. thirty in a lengthwise series, and the BEARDSLEE TROUT. head is long, making more than one-fourth the total length to the base of the caudal. In Crescent Lake, Admiral Beardslee This is one of the finest trout known in also discovered the Beardslee trout, to any country, and it should be planted in YOUNG STEELHEAD TROUT. which his name has been given. It is other deep lakes before it is exterminated found in deeper water than the Crescent by the trout-hog, who is already encamped trout, and it is larger, some specimens on the shores of Lake Crescent. weighing from ten to fourteen pounds. Another trout has been described from Its color is deep blue, dotted with small Lake Crescent as Salmo bathaecetor black spots. The scales are as large as in (Meek). It is certainly much like the ADULT STEELHEAD TROUT: Salmo rivularis (Ayres). THE PACIFIC MONTHLY. Crescent trout, of which it would seem to water the spots appear, and in the be a deep-water variation. Near to Lake small streams it is almost as much spot- Crescent, but wholly separated from it, is ted as the Rainbow trout.