240 NEW- YORK FAUNA. 



THE MACKINAW SALMON. 



Salmo amethystus. 



I 

 PLATE LXXVI. FIG. 541. 



The Namaycush Salmon. Pennant, Arctic Zoology. Supplement, p. 139. 

 The Great Trout of the Lakes, Salmo amethystus. Mitchill, Jour. Acad. Sc. Vol. 1, p. 410. 

 The Namaycush, S. namaycush. Richardson, Faun. Boreal. Am. Vol. 3, p. 179, pi. 79 and 85. 

 The Mackinaw Trout, S. namaycush. Kietland, Report on the Zoology of Ohio, p. 195. 



Characteristics. Dark grey, with numerous light grey spots on the back and sides. Teeth 

 and gums tinged with purple. More elongated than the preceding. Length 

 two to five feet. 



Description. Body robust. Scales small, oval and adherent. Lateral line nearly straight, 

 arising from a short distance below the upper angle of the branchial aperture. Dorsal outline 

 moderately arched. Head one-fourth of the total length, somewhat plane above, and without 

 scales. Eyes moderate. Nostrils double, contiguous ; the anterior with a slightly elevated 

 margin. Mouth large. Jaws very strong and massy ; in the male, the upper is longest, and 

 the lower has a conical knob at its tip. Teeth on the edges of the intermaxillaries, in a 

 single series ; along the labials, in two series, of which the outer is smaller and more nume- 

 rous. On the vomer and palatines, a double row ; the lower jaw and tongue with a single 

 row on each side. All these teeth are strong, sharp and recurved, deeply imbedded in the 

 jaws in the gums, and of a beautiful purplish color at their bases, resembling that of ame- 

 thystine quartz ; their tips are translucent. Branchial rays twelve ; subopercle large and 

 grooved. Air-bladder communicates with the oesophagus by a large tube. 



The dorsal fin nearly in the centre of the fish, its height slightly longer than its base, qua- 

 drate ; the first two rays short, the fourth longest. Adipose short and small, over the last 

 ray of the anal. Pectorals placed low down, pointed, and of fifteen rays. Ventrals with 

 nine rays ; the first ray stout, and with a pointed accessory scale. Anal with thirteen rays. 

 of which the first is much shorter than the second. Caudal forked. 



Color. Dark or dusky grey above ; chin, throat and belly, light ash-grey or cream-color ; 

 the back and sides sprinkled with numerous irregular lighter grey or brown, or soiled white 

 spots, which do not, however, as in the preceding species, rise upon the fins. Ventrals, anal 

 and pectorals slightly yellowish. Irides yellow. The teeth, gums and roof of the mouth 

 with a bright purple tinge already described. 



Length, 24-0-60-0. 



Fin rays, D. 14.0; P. 15; V. 9 ; A. 11 ; C. 19 f. 



It was doubtless through inadvertence that Richardson selected the indian name applied 

 to it by Pennant, in preference to the first trivial name proposed for this species by Dr. 

 Mitchill. 



