196 



THE ANIMALS AND MAN 



on its head or body. Such forms are known to the boys 

 as horned dace. 



Most interesting to the angler are the members of the 

 salmon and trout family (fig. 96), because they are gamy, 

 beautiful, excellent as food, and above all perhaps, because 

 they live in the swiftest and clearest waters in the most 

 charming forests. The salmon live in the ocean most of 

 their lives, but ascend the rivers from the sea to deposit 



FIG. 96. The rainbow-trout, Salmo irideus. 



their eggs. The king salmon of the Columbia goes up the 

 great river more than a thousand miles, taking the whole 

 summer for it, and never feeding while in fresh water. Be- 

 sides the different kinds of salmon, the black-spotted or true 

 trout, the charr or red-spotted trout of various species, 

 the whitefish, the grayling, and the famous ayu of Japan 

 belong to this family. 



In the sea are multitudes of fish forms. The myriad 

 species of eels agree in having a long, flexible, snake-like 

 body, without ventral fins. Most of them live in the sea, 

 but the single genus of true eels which ascends the 

 rivers is exceedingly abundant and widely distributed. 

 Most eels are extremely voracious, but some of them have 

 mouths that would barely admit a pin-head. Cod-fishes are 

 creatures of little beauty but of great usefulness, swarming 



