Evermann, Nelson, and Mexican Trout
Cope's identification of the Lupton trout as "blackspotted trout" has been cited in a number of ichthyological papers. In their treatise Fishes of Middle and North America (l896) and again in American Food and Game Fishes (l902) Barton Evermann and David Starr Jordan went so far as to state the range of the Rio Grande [cutthroat] trout as extending "...southward into the mountains of Chihuahua." This based not on collections, but assuredly solely on Cope's identification.
In a later publication (1908) that described the San Pedro de Martir trout (Nelson's trout) Evermann mentions Cope's paragraph about the "blackspotted trout" in the Sierra Madre. He states:
"Mr. E.W. Nelson visited that locality in August, l898. He informs me that all the streams of that area flow into the Pacific and that the particular stream in which the trout occurs is a small creek rising on the slopes of Mt. Mohinora..."
Evermann's statement is misleading. Neither he nor Nelson knew anything more of the collection locality than was published so vaguely by Cope in l886. Nelson was only in the area as generally delineated by Cope, and neither Nelson nor Evermann could have known the creek or even which watershed that Lupton's trout came from. The trout could just as easily have been collected a few kilometers to the east from the Rio Conchos watershed (See Lupton's Story). This error is traceable to written correspondence in 1906 between Nelson and Evermann. Evermann queried Edward W. Nelson about any trout that he might have seen in mainland Mexico, quoting the locality as per Cope's 1886 publication. Evermann goes on to say that he thought the trout "...might have come from the headwaters of the Rio Mayo or the Rio del Fuerte, both of Pacific drainage, or more likely from the headwaters of the Rio Conchos." Nelson's answer:
"Dear Evermann: The locality of Cope's two specimens of trout from streams of southern Chihuahua near border of Durango and Sinaloa at between 7000 and 8000 feet is the exact place where I learned of their presence during my visit there in the summer of l898 (in August). The streams in this section all flow into the Pacific. The trout were in a small creek rising on the slopes of Mt. Mohinora a few miles south of the mining town of Guadalupe y Calvo, Chihuahua."
...I never heard of any trout being found in streams draining into the Rio Grande basin in Mexico.
P.S. I regret exceedingly that I failed to get specimens of these Sierra Madre trout, but that does not help us any now.
Evermann mischaracterized Nelson's locality as the exact place where Cope's specimens came from, but Nelson previously knew nothing of Lupton's trout, and was only referring to the "general area" of southwestern Chihuahua. Hence the trout were assumed for years to have been Mexican golden trout, and Cope's identification of the trout had been presumed mistaken.
Henry Weed Fowler
No discussion of E.D. Cope and his trout could be complete without contemplation of the contributions of Henry Weed Fowler, former curator of fishes at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. [Much of our information about Fowler is from original research by William Smith-Vaniz and Robert Peck who published "Contributions of Henry Weed Fowler (1878 - 1965)" through the ASIH compilation Collection Building]. Fowler published more than 600 articles and illustrations of more than 4000 fish species. Another 2300 of his illustrations were never published. In 1894 at the age of 16, Fowler became associated with the Academy as a special student, having had already spent many hours at the museum examining and learning to paint plants and animals. Fowler's internship afforded him the opportunity to meet and visit Cope at Cope's Pine Street home later that year. What the young Fowler saw and heard made a great impression:
"All about the floor were numbers of old-fashioned screw-topped pale green preserve jars filled with reptiles and fishes in alcohol. Large ones of several gallons in content were parked about nearer the walls in protected places. They appeared very formidable, as each had a large sheet of foolscap or other white paper pasted on the outside, each containing long columns of scientific names. No other clues to the contents appeared. At that time, I little thought that several years later, the task would fall to me to transport all of this material to the Academy.
"I shall never forget the cordiality of Cope that day and of having the opportunity of a most entertaining time in talking to him about his collections." Next