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<br />Plychoche;lus fucius, Girard, 1856: 209/ 1859a: 65. Jordan and Gilbert, 1883:
<br />227. Jordan, 1886: 127. Kirsch, 1889; 558. Evermann and Rutter, 1895: 482. Jor-
<br />dan and Evermann, 1896: 225. Gilbert and Scofield, 1898: 492. Meek, 1904: xxxix,
<br />52. Grinnell, 1914: 54. Jordan, et al., 1930: 1 1'4. Evermann and Clark, 1931: 53.
<br />Tanner, 1936: 168. Moffett, 1942: 62/ 1943: 182. Dill, 1944; 154. Miller; 1946a:
<br />410/ 19526: 29/ 1955: 129/ 1961 a: 544/ 1961 b: 373 J 1963a: 1 J 1964a: 7. Taft
<br />and Murphy, 1950: 147. Winn and Miller, 1954: 274. Koster, 1957: 59. Kimsey and
<br />Fisk, 1960: 469, Lowe, 1960: 172. Follett, 1961; 216. Beckman, 1963: 43, Sigler
<br />and Miller, 1963: 79. Miller and Lowe, 1964: 133/ 1967: 133, Hinckley, 1965a:
<br />48/ 1971: 184. Barber and Hinckley 1966; 322. Branson, et a1., 1966: 300.
<br />Bradley and Deacon, 1967: 230. Minckl~ey and Alger, 1968: 94, Hinckley and Dea-
<br />con, 1968: 1427. Eddy, 1969: 86. Vanicek and Kramer, 1969: 193.
<br />Body somewhat compressed dorso-ventrally. Head flattened and elongated.
<br />Mouth large, nearly horizontal. Dorsal and anal fins almost always with nine rays,
<br />Dorsal fin far back, originating behind insertion of pelvic fins. S'c'ales small,
<br />embedded (especially on breast, belly, and nape). Skin leathery in texture. Lateral
<br />line with 80 to 95 scales. Pharyngeal arches delicate, the lower ramus elongated
<br />and slender; teeth fragile and elongated, 2, 5-4, 2.
<br />Color olivaceous, darker above. Lower sides yellowish and belly whitened,
<br />especially anteriorly. Young with a dark, wedge-shaped-basicaudal spot, absent in
<br />adults.
<br />The former importance of this species as the "top carnivore" of the
<br />entire Colorado River system, and its essential extinction in Arizona in the
<br />past decade or so, prompts the relatively complete set of references given
<br />above and a substantial coverage of its known biological features and
<br />fomner abundance and distribution. The quotation which follows is from
<br />Miller (1961 b):
<br />"The Colorado squawfish or 'salmon', as it is locally known, is one
<br />of the world's largest minnows and was an important source of food for
<br />the aborigines that lived along the lower Colorado and Gila rivers (Miller,
<br />1955). It probably approached a maximum length of b feet and a weight
<br />of nearly 100 pounds, although record weights over the past 35 years
<br />are not known to have exceeded 40-50 pounds. At one time this preda-
<br />tory, pikelike fish was common in the river channels throughout the
<br />Colorado River basin, wherever there was sufficient depth and current.
<br />Until about 1911, the species was so abundant in the lower Colorado that
<br />individuals got into the irrigation ditches and were pitchforked out onto
<br />the banks by the hundreds for-use as fertilizer. Vast numbers of 'salmon,'
<br />bonytails, and humpback suckers perished in this fashion or died when
<br />they were unable to re-enter the river from the irrigated lands (testimony
<br />of Walter K. Bowker, Jr., Imperial Valley Irrigation District, March 23,
<br />1950). (n the early days the Indians used to tie 2 sticks together, with
<br />netting between, and dip 'salmon' out of the river. From 1911 to 1920,
<br />'salmon' were numerous in the Gila River near Dome, according to
<br />R. C. Richardson, Bureau of Reclamation employee and long-time fisher-
<br />man. Earlier, between about 1845 and 1 BBS, the species occurred more
<br />widely in the Gila River basin in Arizona (Miller, 1955), and it may still
<br />persist in the deep canyons of Salt River where 2 young were caught
<br />by R_ R. Miller and party on May I8, 1950 (at mouth of Cibicue Creek,
<br />Gila County; UMMZ 162779), A sharp decline in abundance was noticed
<br />in the lower Colorado in the 1930-35 period, during the construction and
<br />completion of Hoover Dam and the great 1934 drought, at the height of
<br />which the river was reduced to a shalloar trickle at Yuma (Dill, 1944).
<br />Specimens of Ptychocheilus weighing 6 ro 34 pounds (Wallis, 1951, p.
<br />90) were caught along the lower Colorado in the 1930's and 1940's but
<br />records of fhe species after 1949 are scarce. In the Gila River basin 'the
<br />121
<br />last adult was caught In 1937 (in Selt River, above Roosevelt Dam),
<br />according to T. T. Frazier, Informed local resident, who reported that the
<br />species had been fairly common there in 1906."
<br />Additional testimony from 12 other "old timers" in the Tempe and
<br />Phoenix areas attest similarly to the abundances of fishes in canals fed
<br />by the Salt, Verde, and Gila rivers in the years before 1915 or so. Wagon
<br />boxes were filled with bonytails, a species well known to at least four
<br />of the old fishermen, "Verde trout" (Colorado chubs), razorback (hump-
<br />back) sutkers, and "white salmon," "river salmon," or "salmon" same of
<br />the last ranging to almost 20 kg in weight. The fishes were used as ferti-
<br />lizer, or as food far humans and for domestic hogs. It is notable that the
<br />name "salmon," in some context or alone, was used exclusively for
<br />PtycFtocheilus, and that no other names for the species were known to the
<br />persons interviewed. All 12 had first-hand knowledge of the fish, and
<br />quickly identified photographs that were provided for their examination.
<br />Commercial fishermen operated in the lower Salt River until about
<br />1910, catching "salmon" and "razorbacks" for sale in adjacent towns.10
<br />and later to supplement supplies of surveying and construction crews that
<br />were building dams that now impound much of the lower river, and for
<br />highways (Dammann, in Hinckley, 1965a). Miller's 1950 collection of young
<br />squawfish in the Salt River Canyon near U. S. Highway b0 (Miller, i961b),
<br />was preceded only briefly by Dammann's observation of "two specimens
<br />caught on pole and line ... in 1948 from the Salt River at the same high-
<br />way crossing." The fish were about 30 inches in total length and were
<br />being retained for use as food [in Hinckley, 1965a]." As noted above, the
<br />last adult taken at Roosevelt was in 1937. The last known specimens from
<br />the Selt River, or for that matter from the entire Gila River system, were
<br />seined at the U. S. 60 bridge in Salt River Canyon. The seven individuals
<br />range from 34 to 145 mm long, and were caught in 1958 (Branson, et aJ.,
<br />1966). Determined efforts by myself and others in the mid-1960s, using
<br />refined collecting gear, and again in 1972, failed to obtain additional
<br />material (Hinckley & Deacon, 1968):. As shown in Map 17, the species once
<br />occupied all the major rivers of the Gila basin, moving upstream in the
<br />Verde at least to Perkinsville (Hinckley & Alger, 1968), through most of
<br />the Sait River as indicated by the numerous records in the Canyon, into the
<br />San Pedro as far as Fairbank, Cochise County (Miller, 1955), and at least to
<br />loUnpublished field notes of F. W. Chamberlain, taken in 1904, partially reported
<br />on by Miller (19616) and generously provided by him for my use, include the
<br />following statements: "Just below Roosevelt the Salt River enters a canon and there
<br />forms good-sized pools. In this region protected by its inaccessibility, it is said
<br />salmon of marketable size can still be taken .. .
<br />"B seine hauls were made to the neighborhood of Roosevelt on Apr. 25.
<br />1 humpback sucker and 1 small salmon were obtained the first haul, Meda, Gila,
<br />and three or more species of sucker made up the catch. 1 carp was taken as well as
<br />a number of carp fry ..."
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