144 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



adipose fin standing above the rear part of the anal, and a deeply forked tail. 

 The capelin and argentine alone among the Gulf of Maine fishes share this combi- 

 nation of characters with the smelt, but the latter is distinguishable from the argen- 

 tine at a glance by the location of its dorsal fui above instead of in front of the ven- 

 trals and by its larger mouth, while the large, fanglike teeth of the smelt's tongue, 

 its larger scales (of which there are about 75 rows on the sides, all alike in the two 

 sexes), its shorter adipose fin, its narrower pectoral &a, and the facts that its lower 

 jaw projects but slighlty beyond the upper and that its scales slip off very easUy, 

 obviate all danger of confusing it with the capelin. The body of the smelt is only 

 about one-fifth as deep as long (exclusive of caudal fin), with broadly rounded back 

 but compressed enough to be egg-shaped in cross section. It is deepest about its 

 mid length, tapering thence toward the head as toward the tail (at least in fat fish), 

 whereas the capehn is of nearly uniform depth from giU opening to anal fin (p. 140). 

 Its mouth gapes back of the eye. 



Printed accoimts of the smelt usually credit it with a peculiar "cucumber" 

 odor, and smelt fishermen often speak of a trace of this, but it is so faint that I have 

 never noticed it though I have caught and handled many.^' 



Color. — Transparent olive to bottle green above, the sides a paler cast of the 

 same hue but each with a broad longitudinal silvery band. The belly is silvery, 

 while the fins and body are more or less flecked with tiny dusky dots. This color 

 pattern is shared by another slender little fish, the silverside (Menidia, p. 179), 

 but as the latter has two large dorsal fins there is no danger of confusing the smelt 

 with it. 



Size. — Smelt grow to a maximum length of about 13 or 14 inches. Few larger 

 than a foot long are seen, however, and adults run only about 7 to 9 inches. Accord- 

 ing to size and fatness smelt weigh from 1 to 6 oimces. 



General range. — East coast of North America from eastern Labrador and the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence southward regularly to New Jersey, and reported to Vir- 

 ginia, running up into streams and rivers to spawn. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The smelt is a familiar little fish around 

 the entire coast line of the Gulf of Maine, but varies greatly in abimdance from 

 place to place according to the accessibility of streams suitable for spawning, from 

 which it seldom wanders far alongshore. Smelt are stiU very abundant all around 

 the inner parts of Massachusetts Bay and its tributary harbors, though many of 

 the local streams are barred to them now; thence northward and eastward, too, 

 along the coast of Maine, as illustrated by the following report of commercial 

 catches from the several coast counties of that State in 1919: 



' Tbe European smelt (0. eperlanus) smells so strong that it is not held in very high esteem. 



