09-20-2017, 02:26 PM
[quote TubeDude][#0000ff]Yeah, verily. Sometimes we have to avoid taking fish identification by early explorers too seriously. A good example is the attached dissertation on the "lake trout" of Utah Lake...written in the late 1800s by a surveyor working in the area.
"Mormon macks"?
[/#0000ff][/quote]
Tube -- that article is interesting, and very typical of many articles we see in our newspapers today.
There is conflicting information in that article, the most notable in the very first sentence where the author notes "...as it is sometimes called, the brook and speckled trout...". However, if you look below the title they have very clearly stated the latin name of the trout in question: Salmo Virginalis, Girard. This latin name is specifically that of the Rio Grande cutthroat trout, and was mistakenly used early on as the name for Bonneville cutthroat trout. The rest of the article describes "lake" trout characteristics commonly associated with cutthroat trout.
So, while the article makes things a bit cloudy, it also very accurately describes cutthroat. He even mentions "the same fish in the Yellowstone region" and mentions spawning in mountain springs (lake trout are lake spawners).
Most early settlers and explorers were very good with identification and very specific with characteristics to identify plant and animal species. This article just has a couple mistakes, that most readers with some education can identify and understand the true identification: Bonneville cutthroat trout.
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"Mormon macks"?
[/#0000ff][/quote]
Tube -- that article is interesting, and very typical of many articles we see in our newspapers today.
There is conflicting information in that article, the most notable in the very first sentence where the author notes "...as it is sometimes called, the brook and speckled trout...". However, if you look below the title they have very clearly stated the latin name of the trout in question: Salmo Virginalis, Girard. This latin name is specifically that of the Rio Grande cutthroat trout, and was mistakenly used early on as the name for Bonneville cutthroat trout. The rest of the article describes "lake" trout characteristics commonly associated with cutthroat trout.
So, while the article makes things a bit cloudy, it also very accurately describes cutthroat. He even mentions "the same fish in the Yellowstone region" and mentions spawning in mountain springs (lake trout are lake spawners).
Most early settlers and explorers were very good with identification and very specific with characteristics to identify plant and animal species. This article just has a couple mistakes, that most readers with some education can identify and understand the true identification: Bonneville cutthroat trout.
[signature]