09-20-2017, 03:31 PM
[quote PBH]
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. [/quote]
Yes and no. Mr. Yarrow was a trained biologist ("naturalist" was the term often used at the time) who was part of the Wheeler survey. We would expect him to describe things fairly accurately, which he did. However, pioneers, explorers, and soldiers that describe fish and other wildlife in their journals were often far more inaccurate and the accounts have to be taken with that understanding. The example of the Hole in the Rock pioneers I noted fits into that category. It all still is interesting to read and decipher.
Mr. Yarrow and the Wheeler expedition weren't infallible either. I'd have to check when I get off work, but I believe they were the ones who first collected the Apache trout (of Arizona), but threw future fish biologists for a loop for years to come by mislabeling the collection jars as fish collected from Panguitch lake.
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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. [/quote]
Yes and no. Mr. Yarrow was a trained biologist ("naturalist" was the term often used at the time) who was part of the Wheeler survey. We would expect him to describe things fairly accurately, which he did. However, pioneers, explorers, and soldiers that describe fish and other wildlife in their journals were often far more inaccurate and the accounts have to be taken with that understanding. The example of the Hole in the Rock pioneers I noted fits into that category. It all still is interesting to read and decipher.
Mr. Yarrow and the Wheeler expedition weren't infallible either. I'd have to check when I get off work, but I believe they were the ones who first collected the Apache trout (of Arizona), but threw future fish biologists for a loop for years to come by mislabeling the collection jars as fish collected from Panguitch lake.
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