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Show Ichthyological Exploration of the American West: The Hubbs- Miller Era, 1915- 1950 The first serious effort to conduct an ichthyological survey of Nevada was the Hubbs expedition of 1934- - the great drought year virtually matched in 1988. Their party entered the Red Desert basin, Wyoming, on 11 July, and the last collection was made on 16 September near Green River Wyoming; forty- six days were spent in the Great Basin itself. An apparently endless sagebrush desert punctuated by spectacular north- south mountain ranges ( Fenneman 1931), the Great Basin of western United States, a cool, high desert, would seem an unlikely place to find living fishes. Nevertheless, valley- bottom springs, marked out on the stark Fig. 1- 4. Exploring Nevada in Hot Creek Valley, landscape by groves of verdant Nye County. Photograph by the Hubbs party, ( although introduced) Lombardy 1934- 1 trees ( Populus nigra) and native Fremont poplars ( cottonwoods, P. Fremontii), contain the relicts of a wetter ( Plio- Pleistocene) regime and form an aquatic archipelago- isolated steppingstones in a sea of desert- similar to the Galapagos Archipelago that Charles Darwin mad famous. Early on, traversing the first dirt road in Wyoming, their heavily laden Chevrolet sedan ( Fig. 2- 4) blew two tires. It was then that Carl discovered that the tires were four- ply ( rather than six- ply, as ordered). He wired the dealer in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and six days later he picked up six six- ply tires at Spencer, Idaho, sent by Railway Express. Everything was in or on the car, which, of course, had running boards ( an extinct species today). The back seat had been left at home, and rows of canned goods, utensils, and bedding filled the space so vacated; the three children used these materials for seats. The two tire wells held the spare tires, and all the seines were wedged between these and the hood. There was a special telescoping trunk that made the space two and a half times its. normal length. By the driver's side, a luggage rack passing from running board to windows was loaded with collecting gear. Thus the driver could not get out of his side of the car! The party had a tent that was also stored along the running board. Five times the battery was jarred loose onto the ground by the rough roads, and each time the brakes locked they were beaten loose with a hammer. Chewing gum was used to seal holes that appeared from time to time in the gasoline tank. Supplies lasted from three weeks to a month before it was necessary to stop and replenish them- town with grocery stores were few and far between. During one period they traveled continuously for twenty- two days off pavement ( some of these roads are now paved). Survival under these conditions, with dust and heat often overpowering, required resourcefulness and constant improvisation. Even towels were used on occasion to seine fish. Except for the first- ever use of commercial powdered derris root ( rotenone) to collect fishes in Nevada on 2 August at Italian Camp Springs, Humboldt County ( field no. M34- 105), only seines ( also hands) were used. In order to keep the three children happy under often trying conditions, Carl Hubbs established an " allowance" for them based on the number of species collected ( five cents apiece), with special awards for new species or subspecies ( a dollar) or new genera or sub- genera ( five dollars). Fortunately for them he was a taxonomic " splitter," thus Frances, Clark, and Earl frequently obtained special awards!... |