The Grayling and the Smelt 123 



The best-known genus, Osmerus, includes the smelt, or 

 spirling (eperlan) , of Europe, and its relatives, all excellent food- 

 fishes, although quickly spoiling in warm weather. Osmerus 

 eperlanus is the European species ; Osmerus mordax of our eastern 

 coast is very much like it, as is also the rainbow-smelt, Osmerus 

 dentex of Japan and Alaska. A larger smelt, Osmerus alba- 

 trossis, occurs on the coast of Alaska, and a small and feeble 

 one, Osmerus thaleichthys , mixed with other small or delicate 

 fishes, is the whitebait of the San Francisco restaurants. The 

 whitebait of the London epicure is made up of the young of 

 herrings and sprats of different species. The still more delicate 

 whitebait of the Hong Kong hotels is the icefish, Salanx chinensis. 



FIG. 82. Smelt, Osmerus mordax (Alitciiill) . Wood's Hole, Mass. 



Retro pinna retro pinna, so called from the backward insertion 

 of its dorsal, is the excellent smelt of the rivers of New Zealand. 

 All the other species belong to northern waters. Me so pus, 

 the surf -smelt, has a smaller mouth than Osmerus and inhabits 

 the North Pacific. The California species, Mesopus pretiosus, 

 of Neah Bay has, according to James G. Swan, "the belly 

 covered with a coating of yellow fat which imparts an oily 

 appearance to the water where the fish has been cleansed or 

 washed and makes them the very perfection of pan-fish." This 

 species spawns in late summer along the surf -line. According 

 to Mr. Swan the water seems to be filled with them. " They 

 come in with the flood-tide, and when a wave breaks upon the 

 beach they crowd up into the very foam, and as the surf re- 

 cedes many will be seen flapping on the sand and shingle, but 

 invariably returning with the undertow to deeper water." 

 The Quilliute Indians of Washington believe that "the first 



