1 24 The Grayling and the Smelt 



surf -smelts that appear must not be sold or given away to be 

 taken to another place, nor must they be cut transversely, but 

 split open with a mussel-shell." 



The surf -smelt is marine, as is also a similar species, Mesopus 

 japonicus, in Japan. Mesopus olidus, the pond-smelt of Alaska, 

 Kamchatka, and Northern Japan, spawns in fresh-water ponds. 



Still more excellent as a food-fish than even these exquisite 

 species is the famous eulachon, or candle-fish (Thaleichthys 

 pacificus). The Chinook name, usually written eulachon, is 

 perhaps more accurately represented as ulchen. This little 

 fish has the form of a smelt and reaches the length of nearly a 

 foot. In the spring it ascends in enormous numbers all the 



FIG. 83. Eulachon, or Ulchen. Thaleichthys pretiosus Girard. Columbia River. 



Family Argentinidce. 



rivers north of the Columbia, as far as Skaguay, for a short 

 distance for the purpose of spawning. These runs take place 

 usually in advance of the salmon-runs. Various predatory 

 fishes and sea-birds persecute the eulachon during its runs, 

 and even the stomachs of the sturgeons are often found full 

 of the little fishes, which they have taken in by their sucker- 

 like mouths. At the time of the runs the eulachon are ex- 

 tremely fat, so much so that it is said that when dried and a 

 wick drawn through the body they may be used as candles. 

 On Nass River, in British Columbia, a strgam in which their 

 run is greatest, there is a factory for the manufacture of eula- 

 chon-oil from them. This delicate oil is proposed as a substitute 

 for cod-liver oil in medicine. Whatever may be its merits in 

 this regard, it has the disadvantage in respect to salability 

 of being semi-solid or lard-like at ordinary temperatures, re- 

 quiring melting to make it flow as oil. The eulachon is a favorite 



