The Grayling and the Smelt i 27 



in abundance in recent shales in Greenland enveloped in nodules 

 of clay. In the open waters about the Aleutian Islands a small 

 smelt, Therobromus callorhini, occurs in very great abundance 

 and forms the chief part of the summer food of the fur-seal. 

 Strangely enough, no complete specimen of this fish has yet 

 been seen by man, although thousands of fragments have been 

 taken from seals' stomachs. From these fragments Mr. Frederick 

 A. Lucas has reconstructed the fish, which must be an ally of 

 the surf -smelt, probably spawning in the open ocean of the north. 



The silvery species called Argentina live in deeper water 

 and have no commercial importance. Argentina silus, with 

 prickly scales, occurs in the North Sea. Several fossils have 

 been doubtfully referred to Osmerus. 



The Microstomidae. The small family of Microstomida con- 

 sists of a few degraded smelt, slender in form, with feeble mouth 

 and but three or four branchiostegals, rarely taken in the deep 

 seas. Nansenia grcenlandica was found by Reinhardt off the 

 coast of Greenland, and six or eight other species of Microstoma 

 and Bathylagus have been brought in by the deep-sea explora- 

 tions. 



The Salangidae, or Icefishes. Still more feeble and insignifi- 

 cant are the species of Salangida, icefishes, or Chinese whitebait, 

 which may be described as Salmonidce reduced to the lowest 

 terms. The body is long and slender, perfectly translucent, 

 almost naked, and with the skeleton scarcely ossified. The 

 fins are like those of the salmon, the head is depressed, the jaws 

 long and broad, somewhat like the bill of a duck, and within 

 there are a few disproportionately strong canine teeth, those 

 of the lower jaw somewhat piercing the upper. The alimentary 

 canal is straight for its whole length, without pyloric caeca. 

 These little fishes, two to five inches long, live in the sea in 

 enormous numbers and ascend the rivers of eastern Asia for 

 the purpose of spawning. It is thought by some that they are 

 annual fishes, all dying in the fall after reproduction, the species 

 living through the winter only within its eggs. But this is 

 only suspected, not proved, and the species will repay the care- 

 ful study which some of the excellent naturalists of Japan are 

 sure before long to give to it. The species of Salanx are known 

 as whitebait, in Japan as Shiro-uwo, which means exactly the 



