474 SUPPLEMENT ON 



Our figure of Salmo Canadensis was drawn by Colonel 

 Hamilton Smith, from a living specimen taken in Canada : it 

 is beautifully dotted with blood-red in a white circular spot. 



The subgenus Osmerus contains but one species, salmo - 

 eperlanus, Liu., the well known fish called the smelt. This 

 fish emits an odour which some have compared to that of the 

 violet. It inhabits the sea, the mouths of great rivers, and 

 the depths of lakes where the bottom is sandy. Towards 

 spring it ascends into the rivers in numerous troops to deposit 

 or fecundate its eggs, and multiplies astonishingly. In some 

 of our markets, smelts are extremely plentiful, as they like- 

 wise are in Germany and Sweden. They are taken with nets 

 with very close meshes. The smelt lives on worms and 

 small testacea. 



Bloch supposes that the sea-smelt is different from that of 

 the lakes; but he is unable to establish any foundation for 

 the difference. There is found, however, in the depths of the 

 the Baltic Sea, in the North Atlantic, and about the Straits 

 of Magellan!, a variety which differs from the smelt of the 

 lakes, by its weaker odour, and larger dimensions. 



We have come to the great genus Clupea, (the herrings), 

 one of the best known and most useful to the human race. 



The Clupea harengus, or well-known herring, swims 

 with considerable strength and agility, and feeds on the eggs 

 of fishes, small crabs, and worms. 



On the shores of Norway the herrings, according to the 

 report of some travellers, feed principally on a sort of red- 

 dish worms, which the inhabitants name roe-acal, or aat, 

 or silaat ; but these animals are not worms, they belong to 

 the class of Crustacea. Fabricius has described them under 

 the name of astacus harengum. It is probable that they 

 belong to the mysis of Latreille and Leach. They are so 

 multiplied in summer that in drawing up a little sea- water 



