87;^ 



indicates at lesist no lack of aijilitv. Pint out of the 

 water it soon dies, no more tcuiicious of lite than tlic 

 llci'i'in^'. it is a niii;rator\- iisii iilvc tiie Salmons, though 

 not in so liiuii a degree, roving sit the spmvning-season 

 from salt water to fresh, or, in the lakes, from ilee|> 

 water to tiie sh:illo\vs. As the spawning-season a])- 

 |ii'o!iches, it assembles in large and dense shoals; hut at 

 other times it leads a more solitary life, being fre- 

 (|ueMtl\ taken in the Ilerriiig-nets used in the IJaltie, 

 hut not in an\' great number. It feeds ]irinci|)all\' on 

 fisli. small or large — at least up to half of its own 

 size — and especially on Herring-fry and thi' \(miigof 

 its own species. Other kinds of food, howe\'er, such 

 as crustaceans (shriuq)S and (.Tammai-oids), worms, and 

 larva', do not come amiss. 



According to Yarkell the marine Smelt of the 

 English coasts repairs to fresh or brackish water, and 

 remains tliere from August to Mav. In the Xorrstrc'nn 

 otf Stockholm a female 19(j mm. long and a male 188 

 anil, long, both ipiite ready to spawn, were taken on 

 tile 1th of November, 1S92: but as a rule the Smelt 

 does not muster in Sweden for its breeding exjieditions 

 imtil the end of March or even later. From the island- 

 belt of Sodermanlaud EivSTROm wrote, "In Marcli or 

 April, according to the earlier or later breaking up of 

 the ice, the Smelt ascends to rivers, straits, or shores 

 where there is some current, always choosing, however, 

 water of some depth with a clean, sand\- bottom. It 

 generalh- rises towards evening and continues its jour- 

 ney the whole night, but at daybreak again retires for 

 the most part to deep water. A remarkable circum- 

 stance is that, whereas all other lishes prefer to s])awn 

 in fiuf: weatlier, in the Smelt the case is just the re- 

 verse. In s(|ualh' and snowy weather it is most eager 

 in its aseent, the violent gusts of wind and snow that 

 occur during the said months Ijeing hence known as 

 nors-il (Smelt squalls). Males and females swim in 

 corajiany during the spawning, and are so densely 

 massed that they seem merely to rub their bodies to- 

 gether in order to rid themselves of the roe, which is 

 deposited on the bottom beneath." The young start 

 first, but do not ascend so far u]) the rivers as the 

 older tisli, and often spawn in the lakes on shallow- 

 shores. Each siioal completes its spawning operations 

 in a few days; but one shoal follows in the wake of 



" F.4ITH in Kroyer (1. c.) and Feddersex in the Tidfki 



'• Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1886, p. 292, tab. XXX. 



"■ Sonderlieil. Mittheil. Sclcl. Kiist.. Hochs. Fisch., Jalus 



another, and thus tlie spawning continues as a rule 

 from the latter part of March to the first weeks of May. 

 The greater part of the shoal is composed of females, 

 and after the s|)a\\ning the shore and the bottom are 

 strewn \\ith nund)ers of dead Smelts which have strug- 

 gled in vain to disburden themselves of the roe". The 

 ova are light yellow; their dianu^ter was estimated l)y 

 Bknecke at ()■() — (I'.S mm., and their number in a i'e- 

 niale 18 — I'O em. long liy NoiiiiAcK at 50,000, by Oi.sen 

 at about 8(),00(). The\- attach themselves iti a singular 

 manner to the objects on which they fall after impreg- 

 nation. According to Cunnixgham', the outer membrane 

 of the o\um, the so-called zona radlata, "is differen- 

 tiated into two layers, the outer of which is somewhat 

 thinner tlian the internal. In the zona radiata extei-na 

 the pores are larger and farther a])art than in tlie in- 

 terna. But the important fact, which I believe no one 

 has jireviously observed, is tliat the external zona sepa- 

 rates \ery readily from the internal, and, rupturing at 

 one portion of the ovum, peels off", becoming turned 

 inside out in the ]>roeess, and, remaining attached over 

 a small circulai' area, forms the suspensory membrane", 

 liy means of which the ovum is attached to any ex- 

 ternal object. 



The eggs are hatched, ax-cording to Blaxcherk, in 

 8 — 10 days, according to Feddeuskx in 12 daj-s, and 

 according to SrNi)i:vAr.L in IJS days, a discrepancy of 

 observation whieh in all |)rol>ability depends on the dif- 

 ferent temperature of the water during the period of 

 incubation. On their first exclusion the fry are elongated, 

 according to SuNi)E\-ALi. .") mm. long, and perfecth' ti-aiis- 

 parent; they are characterized by the unusually back- 

 ward position of the vitelline sac, the distance between 

 it and the insertion of the pectoral fins being more than 

 half of that l)etween these tins and the tip of the snout. 

 Eiirexbaum" gives some personal observations on the 

 growth of the larval Smelts. In the first month after 

 the hatching, according to him, they grew to a length 

 of 14 — IS mm.; in tlu' second he found them to be 

 27 — 34 mm. long, in the tliird '.V2 — .■)7 mm., in the 

 fourth O.I — 44 mm., in the fifth 44 — (iO mm. Still, 

 in .4ugust, according to Yakhell, they already measure 

 as much as about 7\, cm. The Smelt attains maturity 

 in the following s])ring, or, according to Norb.uk, 

 even at a length of 4;-) — 60 mm. 



/. Fiskeri. vol. IV (187(1). p. 102. 



1892, p. 12. 



