230 MALACOPTERYGII. — SALMONID^. 



Family IV. Salmonid^e. 



(Salmons.) 



If the number of component members in any 

 Family were the sole criterion of its importance, 

 the present group would occupy a much less space 

 in our pages than the preceding,- containing, as it 

 does, barely one-third of the number of its species. 

 Yet when we think of the various Salmons and 

 Trouts of Europe and America, and add to them 

 the excellent and beautiful, Char, the Smelt, 

 small but delicious, the Grayling, Vendace, Gwy- 

 niad, Powan, and Pollan, the Capelin of New- 

 foundland, and multitudes of other foreign species 

 unknown by English names, but valuable as the 

 food of man, we shall be ready to acknowledge 

 that the Salmonidce constitute a very important 

 and useful Family in the great Class of Fishes. 



The typical Salmons are distinguished for the 

 graceful, swelling symmetry of their form ; thick 

 and plump in the centre, and tapering to each 

 extremity. Their body is covered with large and 

 well- formed scales ; all the rays of their fins are 

 soft ; behind the dorsal there is a small spurious 

 fin, consisting of a doubling of the skin filled with 

 fatty substance, but destitute of rays ; this is 

 usually known as the adipose (or fat) fin. In 

 general the mouth is well furnished with teeth ; 

 their intestine has many caecal appendages ; and 

 they all have an air-bladder. 



The well-known fishes of this Family are 

 powerful, bold, and voracious; in general, how- 

 ever, they do not prey upon other fishes, but 



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