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BIG OREGON STEELHEAD SalmonTrout Which Abound in Co ¬ lumbia Kivers Fresh Waters Early False Classing of the Fish FishCorrected Corrected Immense Stocking Stockingof of Streams H wcver superlative may have been the finalities of the biff trout of the old days the best tradi ¬ tions of the species have been perpetuated and handed down to Oregon anglers of today in the seagoing rainbow alias steelliead And steelhcad with thanks to careful propagation and farsighttd protection are yet plentiful in the very same streams that knew them when Capt Robert Gray drove the prow of his ship Into the fresh waters of the Columbia ColumbiaWherever Wherever anglers foregather to yarn after the manner of their kind sometime or other the tales of mighty strikes and epochal struggles will gjvi place to one of an Oregon steelliead his pugnacity and his poundage Fin and sinew and scale when ever fighting fish are discussed lie rises amid his peers peersThough Though a trout from the rounded bluntness of his aristocratic snout to the clean square power ¬ ful sweep of his broad tail the steelliead is of ¬ ficially known in Oregon as the stcclliwid salmon for there is a strong market demand for his firm pink flesh and there is commercial wealth in his constantly replenished numbers as they sweep in from salt water to the distant spawning beds In the Rogue River alone is his identity preserved where though he is still officially a salmon the law protects him from netting in order that he may rise to the fly and furnish pyrotech ¬ nics and thrills for sportsmen as a true trout should shouldEARLY EARLY FALSE CLASSIFICATION CLASSIFICATIONOnce Once upon a time by authoritative voice the steelliead was scientifically classified as a sal ¬ mon and the error of his naming persists despite denial It was David Starr Jordan of Stanford whose avocation has been the classification of the salnumidae of the Pacific coast who first deter ¬ mined that the steelliead was a salmon born and bred and whose mistaken dictum found place in scientific records and encyclopedic works This was an opinion which Dr Jordan later found it wise to recant rcclassifyiiig the fish as a searun rain ¬ bow trout troutSince Since then Dr Jordan has frequently for hi initial error been called upon In person and by correspondence to settle the steellicadrainbow con ¬ troversy Ilia is the delightful plight of having to tell the prosalmon adherents that none other than his own hand wrote the erroneous authority they quote and that he has taken the scientific privilege of changing his own mind mindBeyond Beyond all controversy the point has been settled that rainbow trout when released in coastal streams though alien to such waters will stir to some tribal recollection old as the spots on their flanks and will seek the sea When they return he is a wise fisherman indeed who can point out a difference between them and the native steelhcad to whose ancestry the stream has been a breeding uiecca for centuries past pastWhile While the steelliead flourishes and he flourishes with a will so hearty that a hundred yards of line rips through the water in a jiffy none can witli propriety complain that the old gods are dead or that Oregon angling has fallen in parlous anil profitless days daysIt It is the intent of the Oregon fish and game commission that the steelliead and his country brother the rainbow shall continue to provide dis ¬ port for the jaded as the biennial report attests During 1917 the commission released in Oregon streams a total of 4807713 steellioad and 4292G1 rainbow and during 1918 a total of 2Kil9i2 ralu IK W and li335SO steelliead were released Port laud Oregouian
