American Smelt 



American Smelt 



Osmerus mordax (Mitchill) 



This is the smelt of America. It is found along our Atlantic 

 Coast from Virginia to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, entering streams, 

 and is often land-locked. It is abundant in Lakes Champlain 

 and Memphremagog, and in many other lakes in New England, 

 New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. It enters our rivers and 

 brackish bays during the winter months for the purpose of 

 spawning, when it is caught in immense numbers in nets 

 and by hook and line. In 1622 Capt. John Smith wrote: "Of 

 smelts there is such abundance that the Salvages doe take them 

 up in the rivers with baskets, like sives"; and Josselyn, 55 

 years later, wrote: "The frostfish [O. mordax] is little bigger 

 than a Gudgeon, and are taken in fresh brooks; when the 

 waters are frozen they make a hole in the ice, about % yard 

 or yard wide, to which the fish repair in great numbers, where, 

 with small nets bound to a hoop about the bigness of a firkin- 

 hoop, with a staff fastened to it, they take them out of the 

 hole." Great quantities are taken along the coast and usually 

 after being frozen, are shipped to the larger cities. Those which 

 have not been frozen are termed "green" smelts, and are much 

 more highly esteemed. 



The principal food of the smelt consists of shrimps and other 

 small crustaceans. 



Colour, transparent greenish above, sides silvery; body and 

 fins with some dark punctulations. The smelt does not usu- 

 ally exceed 8 or 10 inches in length, but it sometimes exceeds a 

 foot in length and a weight of a pound. 



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