THE SALMON. 21 



flesh. The tlesh, wliich is red and rich in the spring, becomes 

 dry and poor then. They are in no respect Hke the shapely, 

 symmetrical, clean, lithe, and beautiful fish which dominate 

 the Atlantic streams. 



Tyj^icall}', Salmo Quinnat (^O. chonic/ia), is described by 

 Jordan cS: Gilbert as follows: 



Color dusky above, often tinged with olivaceous or bluish; 

 sides and below silvery; head dark slaty, usually darker than 

 the body, and little spotted; back dorsal fin and tail usually 

 profusely covered with round black spots — these are some- 

 times few, but very rarely altogether wanting; sides of head 

 and caudal fin with a peculiar metallic tin-colored luster; 

 male, about the spawning season (October), blackish, more 

 or less tinged or blotched with dull red; head conic, rather 

 pointed in the females an<i spring males. Maxillary rather 

 slender, the small eye behind its middle. Teeth small, larger 

 on sides of lower jaw than in front; vomerine teeth very few 

 and weak, disappearing in the males. In the males, in late 

 smumer and fall, the jaws become elongated and distorted, and 

 the anterior teeth much enlarged, as in the related species. 

 The body then becomes deeper, more compressed, and arched 

 at the shoulders, and the color nearl}^ black. Preopercle and 

 opercle strongly convex. Body comparatively robust, its depth 

 greatest near its middle. Ventials inserted behind middle of 

 dorsal, vential appendage half the length of the fin; caudal — 

 unusual in this genus — strongly forked on a rather slender caudal 

 peduncle. Flesh red and rich in spring, becoming paler in 

 the fall as the spawning season approaches. Head 4; depth 4. 

 B. 15-16 to i8-ig, the number on the two sides always unlike; 

 D. 11; A. 16. Gill-rakers usually 9x14 — /. e., 9 above the angle 

 and 14 below. Pyloric coeca 140-185. Scales usually 27-146- 

 29, the number in a longitudinal series varying from 140-155, 

 and in California specimens as low as 135. 



\^ery different is the Atlantic Salmon (S. salar Linnaeus) 

 to the scientific eye, when compared with the foregoing, and 

 described by Jordan & Gilbert, to-wit: 



Body moderatel}' elongate, sjmimetrical, not generally 

 compressed. Head rather low. Alouth moderate, the maxil- 

 lary reaching just past the eye; its length 2}^ 3 in head; in 

 young specimens the maxillary is proportionately shorter. 

 Preoperculum with a distinct lower limb, the angle rounded. 



