e fished when low enough for wading. I should much like to
try these two streams again, as I am confident that some very large fish
could be caught. It would be well worth trying the effect of a prawn,
fished deep. A Silver Devon ought also to be effective. Personally this
is the limit of my experience in British Columbia, but very good fishing
is to be got in the Coquitlam and Capillano near Vancouver, and in the
Stave and Pitt Rivers, which are a little further off. In all these
rivers the steel-head can be got on the minnow, seldom, I believe, on
the fly.

It is hard to say how far the steel-head may run up the Fraser--probably
at least as far as the Coquehalla at Hope, for up to this point there is
nothing in the strength of the current to prevent it; but above, in the
Fraser Canyon, the tremendous difficulties of the ascent may well stop
its further progress. The steel-head has not developed the powerful
tail and anal fin of the Pacific salmon, which must be a great aid to it
in passing through such strong water for such immense distances. It may
well be that the smaller tail of the steel-head renders it unfit for the
effort. Otherwise, there would be no reason why it should not travel up
the rivers as far as the salmon, just as the sea-trout does in European
rivers. This is apparently not the case. The Fraser Canyon appears to be
impassable to them, and they are only found in the lower tributaries of
the Fraser and shorter coast rivers. The steel-head is the sea-going
species of the rainbow; it is practically a silver rainbow, without the
red stripe, which only appears faintly after it has been some time in
fresh water. The steel-head is usually known as _Salmo gairdneri_, but
in a recent letter Professor Jordan informs me that its correct name is
_Salmo rivularis ayres_. He states that he has evidence to prove that
the original _gairdneri_ was the "nerka," which is the sockeye or
blue-back salmon.

The smaller sizes take the fly readily under favourable circumstances,
both in the salt water, at the mouths of rivers, and in the rivers
themselves. The heavier fish of 7lb. and upwards are more often got on a
minnow. Large ones up to 11lb. have been caught with the prawn in the
basin under the falls of the Capillano. Though I am not prepared to say
whether these fish were rainbow or steel-heads, the fact must be
strongly insisted on that there is considerable difficulty in
distinguishing between steel-head, rainbow,