OF

THE SALMON FAMILY.

all the families of fishes, the one most interesting from almost every point of view is that of the Salmonida, the Salmon family. As now restricted, it is not one of the largest families, as it comprises less than a hundred species; but in beauty, activity, gaminess, quality as food, and even in size of individuals, different members of the group stand easily with the first among fishes. The following are the chief external characteristics which are common to the members of the family as here understood; the Argentinida and the Salangida, usually included with them, being here placed in separate groups:

Body oblong or moderately elongate, covered with cycloid scales of varying size. Head naked. Mouth terminal or somewhat inferior, varying considerably among the different species, those having the mouth largest usually having also the strongest teeth. Maxillary provided with a supplemental bone, and forming the lateral margin of the upper jaw. Pseudobranchiæ present. Gill-rakers varying with the species. Opercula complete. No barbels. Dorsal fin of moderate length, placed near the middle of the length of the body. Adipose fin well developed. Caudal fin forked. Anal fin moderate or rather long. Ventral fins nearly

median in position. Pectoral fins inserted low. Lateral line present. Outline of belly rounded. Vertebræ in large number, usually about sixty.

The stomach in all the Salmonida is siphonal, and at the pylorus are many (15 to 200) comparatively large pyloric cœca. The air-bladder is large. The eggs are usually much larger than in fishes generally, and the ovaries are without special duct, the ova falling into the cavity of the abdomen before exclusion. The large size of the eggs, their lack of adhesiveness, and the readiness with which they may be impregnated, render the Salmonidæ peculiarly adapted for artificial culture.

The Salmonida are peculiar to the North Temperate and Arctic regions, and within this range they are almost equally abundant wherever suitable waters occur. Some of the species, especially the larger ones, are marine and anadromous, living and growing in the sea, and ascending fresh waters to spawn. Still others live in running brooks, entering lakes or the sea when occasion serves, but not habitually doing so. Still others are lake fishes, approaching the shore or entering brooks in the spawning season, at other times retiring to waters of considerable depth. Some of them are active, voracious, and gamy; while others are comparatively defenceless, and will not take the hook. They are divisible into eight easily recognized genera, Coregonus, Plecoglossus, Brachymystax, Stenodus, Thymallus, Oncorhynchus, Salmo, and Salvelinus. These groups may be discussed in order.

The genus Coregonus, which includes the various species known in America as lake white-fish, is distinguishable in general by the small size of its mouth, the weakness of its teeth, and the large size of its scales. The teeth, especially, are either reduced to very slight asperities, or else are altogether wanting. The species reach a length of one to two feet or more. With scarcely an exception they inhabit clear lakes, and rarely enter streams except to spawn. In far northern regions. they often descend to the sea; but in the latitude of the United States this is rarely possible for them, as they are unable to endure impurities in the water. They seldom take the hook, and rarely feed on other fishes. From their restriction to the waters of the different lake systems in which they live, numerous local varieties have been developed both in Europe and America, distinguished by characters less constant and less important than those which separate the different species. European writers have somewhat inconsistently regarded these varying and intangibly different forms as distinct species, and many of them have come to the conclusion that almost every lake system of Scandinavia, Scotland, and Russia has several species which are peculiar to it. Dr. Günther observes that "the species of this genus are not less numerous than those of Salmo, some having a very extended geographical range, whilst others are confined to very limited localities. They are less subject to variation than the trout, and therefore more easily characterized and distinguished. Hence we find that naturalists who

look with distrust on the different species of Salmo are quite ready to admit those of Coregonus."

It seems to me, however, that the variableness in Coregonus has been underestimated. The American species at least are all fishes of wide range, varying considerably with their surroundings.

None of the other species reach the size, or have the value as food, of our common white-fish. The species of Coregonus differ from each other in the form and size of the mouth, in the form of the body, and in the development of the gill-rakers. These differences have led to the establishment of about five sections, or subgenera, the extremes of which differ remarkably, but which gradually pass from one into another. Of the species, the following are among the most noteworthy:

Coregonus oxyrhynchus - the Schnäbel of Holland, Germany, and Scandinavia has the mouth very small, the sharp snout projecting far beyond it. No species similar to this is found in America.

The Rocky Mountain White-fish (Coregonus williamsoni) has also a small mouth and projecting snout, but the latter is blunter and much. shorter than in C. oxyrhynchus. This is a small species abounding everywhere in the clear lakes of the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, from Colorado to Vancouver Island. It is a handsome fish, and excellent as food.

Closely allied to Coregonus williamsoni is the Pilot-fish, Shad-waiter, Round-fish, or Menomonee White-fish (Coregonus quadrilateralis). This species is found in the Great Lakes, the Adirondack

region, the lakes of New Hampshire, and thence northwestward to Alaska, abounding in cold deep waters, its range apparently nowhere coinciding with that of Coregonus williamsoni.

The common White-fish (Coregonus clupeiformis) is the largest in size of the species of Coregonus, and is unquestionably the finest as an article of food. It varies considerably in appearance with age and condition, but in general it is proportionately much deeper than any of the other smallmouthed Coregoni. The adult fishes develop a considerable fleshy hump at the shoulders, which causes the head, which is very small, to appear disproportionately so. The white-fish spawns in November and December, on rocky shoals in the great lakes. Its food, which was for a long time unknown, was ascertained by Dr. P. R. Hoy to consist chiefly of deep-water crustaceans, with a few mollusks, and larvæ of water insects. "The white-fish," writes Mr. James W. Milner, "has been known since the time of the earliest explorers as pre-eminently a fine-flavored fish. In fact, there are few table-fishes its equal. To be appreciated in its fullest excellence, it should be taken fresh from the lake and broiled. Father Marquette, Charlevoix, Sir John Richardson, — explorers who for months at a time had to depend on the whitefish for their staple article of food-bore testimony to the fact that they never lost their relish for it, and deemed it a special excellence that the appetite never became cloyed with it." The range of the white-fish extends from the lakes of New York and New England northward to the Arctic Circle.