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Last modified
7/14/2009 5:02:29 PM
Creation date
5/20/2009 9:37:46 AM
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UCREFRP
UCREFRP Catalog Number
7138
Author
Jordan, D. S.
Title
Report of Explorations in Colorado and Utah during the Summer of 1889
USFW Year
1891
USFW - Doc Type
Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission
Copyright Material
NO
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<br />FXPLORATIONS IN COLORADO AND UTAH. <br />5 <br />not from one to ten times flowed over some field, while the beds of many considerable <br />streams (Rio la Jara, Rio Alamosa, etc.) are filled with dry clay and dust. <br />Great numbers of trout, in many cases thousands of them, pass into these irrigat <br />ing ditches and are left to perish in the fields. The destruction of trout by this agency <br />is ftr greater than that due to all others combined, and it is going on ill almost every <br />irrigating,ditch in Colorado. <br />It is not easy to suggest a remedy for it. The valleys in qurstion would be worth- <br />less for agriculture were it not for irrigation, and the economic value of the trout <br />is but a trifle as compared with the value of the water privileges. It is apparently <br />impossible to shut out the trout front the ditches by any system of screens. These <br />screens soon become clogged by silt, dead leaves, and sage brush, and thus will not <br />admit the passage of the water. <br />Perhaps most of the trout are lost by entering the ditches in the fall, when run- <br />uing down stream with the cooling of the water. It has been suggested that a law <br />could compel the closing of the ditches after the harvest, allowing the streams to flow <br />freely until March or April. In the fall the water is worth most to the fishes aitd <br />least to the ftrmers. I am unable to say whether this plan will prove practicable or <br />effective. This is certain, that if the present conditions go on the trout in the lower <br />courses of all the streams will be exterminated, and there will be trout only in the <br />mountain lakes and in the mountain ?ueadotcs, to which agriculture can not extentl- <br />INDIGENIOtiS FISHES. <br />The fishes of Colorado are very few in number, notwithstanding the fact that four <br />distinct faunal basins are within the limits of the State. <br />The trout, Sahno mykiss «albauut, anti its varieties are found ill all the mountain <br />lakes and streams, down to a point where the summer temperature reaches 600 to 650, <br />when they gradually disappear. In clear streams and streams with bottoms of gravel <br />they extend mueb farther than in turbid streams or those NN ith clay bottoms. <br />The mountain miuuows, Rhiniehthys d?tleis, oil the eastern slope and in the Rio <br />Grande, and Agosia yarroici, in the Colorado basin, accompany the trout in the mount. <br />aiu meadows, not, however, ascending so near to the sources of the stream. Oil the <br />other baud, they extend their range farther down than the trout, and exist in millions <br />in the upper part of some of the valleys. They secant to be barmless little fishes, and <br />they are eaten by the trout. <br />The blob or Miller's Thumb (Cottus bairdi punetitlatits) is equally fond of colt) <br />and clear eaters. In the Colorado basin it is very abundant, but in the other regions <br />it is scarce, if present, and we did not find it. It is very destructive to the eggs of <br />trout. <br />The stickers of various species extend up the rivers more or less to the point <br />where the trout disappear. Generally speaking, the suckers of the different basins <br />unlike. We found Cato.stonttts yriseus and Catostorttrrs toes in the Platte, the for- <br />are <br />mer aseendiug the streams much higher than the latter. lit the Arkansas, Catostovnts <br />Ceres; in the Rio Grande, 1'anto8te?ts plebeius; in the Colorado, Patdostett.s delphinus, <br />Catostomus latipinttis, and 1 yrauchen rypho. The species of Cottostonttts and Iyrauchen <br />reach ;t considerable size, and are food-fishes of poor quality. All are destructive to <br />the eggs of the trout.
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