l trout in the country, indeed the most beautiful fish in
the world, perhaps, are found in three little streams on the very top of
the Sierra Nevada. Did they tell you the story, in Washington, about the
three forms of golden trout?"

"No, Dr. Jimson," the boy replied; "Dr. Crafts mentioned it, but
something came up to turn the conversation."

"I went up on that expedition a few years ago," the trout-lover said,
"because I've done a good deal of work for the Bureau on the whole
salmon family. Trout and salmon are very near relatives, and the trout
will go up streams and leap small falls just as the salmon do. But, as
you can easily see, in the headwaters of streams rising high in the
Sierras, there are sure to be falls that trout cannot leap."

"Yes, sir, of course."

"Now, my boy," the other said impressively, "a few years ago, it was
found out that there were trout in these streams above falls which would
be absolutely impassable to any fish. How could they get there? It was a
riddle. The only possible answer was that the fish must be older than
the falls, that the stream had worn away its bed, bit by bit, until an
impassable barrier from below had been created, but that the trout had
gone on in the upper creeks, developing in their own way, for hundreds
of centuries.

"The rocks over which these streams flow are a granite formation, very
brightly colored, principally gray and red. The swiftly-flowing stream
removes the debris, so that the clear water flows limpidly over this
gorgeous coloring. In such a stream, where the natural enemies of the
trout are the fish-hawk and the eagle, it is essential as a matter of
protection that the fish should resemble the hue of the bottom, and
accordingly, the most superb coloring in the world is theirs. But each
of the three small streams that are cut off from the rivers below are
also separate from each other, and in the ages during which this has
been so, each of these streams has seen a different coloration develop
in the trout. All are bright golden, all have orange fins and an orange
stripe along the side, all are spotted with black, but they vary in many
small particulars. Nowhere else in the world but in these three
creeks--Volcano Creek, Soda Creek, and Aqua Bonita or Gracious Water
Creek--can these fish be found; nowhere else would they retain their
gorgeous coloring.

"Accordingly, the United States Government sent a party up to the very
summit of the Sierra Nevad