40 AMERICAN FISHES. 



All the family of Sahnonidre, or Salmons, have hco dorsal fins, as 

 will be observed in the outline figure on page 37 ; the hinder one of 

 which has no rays, but is merely a fleshy or fatty appendage. Had 

 the Otsegoites known this simple fact, they would at once have per- 

 ceived that their fish not only was not a Bass, but was a Salmon. And 

 this same degree of attainment would have prevented the application 

 of the misnomer Trout to the Weak-Fish. I have observed this very 

 day, in the columns of a distinguished weekly journal, an offer on the 

 part of a correspondent to describe the habits, &c., of the Susque- 

 hannah Salmon ! There being notoriously no Salmon in that or any 

 Southern stream, although the Brook Trout abound in its upper 

 waters, I venture at once to predict that this Salmon will tm-n out to 

 be the fish described by DeKay as Liicioperca Americana, and vari- 

 ously called Ohio Salmon and Ohio Pickerel ; being neither, but a 

 species of the Pearch family, with one spiny dorsal fin. 



I hope these brief facts will induce sportsmen to give a little atten- 

 tion to this subject ; and that they will not be alarmed by the harsh- 

 ness or apparent difficulty of a few foreign terms, nor suff"er themselves 

 to be deterred by a mere show of trouble from acquiring, in a few 

 minutes, that which will surely give them years of gratification. 



More direct instruction in regard to the mode of observation, and 

 the point to be observed, will be given imder the head of each par- 

 ticular fish, in the body of the work ; but I will here point out that it 

 is very well to note down the number of rays severally contained in 

 the pectoral, ventral, anal, caudal, and dorsal fins of any fish which is 

 suspected of being an undescribed or distinct variety ; as on this, as 

 well as on the shape of these appendages, much depends in distin- 

 guishing individual species of the same family. 



I will here, in corroboration of the last remark, state in two words, 

 that next to the arrangement of the gill-covers, of which more anon, 

 the fact on which Yarrel relies most strongly for distinguishing the 

 Bull-Trout, Salmo Eriox, from the true Salmon, Salmo Sa/ar, is 

 this, that the caudal fin of the former is convex, while that of the latter 

 is more or less concave, or forked, in proportion to the age of the 

 individual fish. 



1 shall now pass to the consideration of the gill-covers, the appa- 



