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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



Clark Expedition about 1805, we find 

 this memorandum, accompanied by a 

 fair pen sketch of the fish : 



"I think them superior to any fish I 

 ever tasted, even more delicate and lus- 

 cious than the white fish of the Lakes 

 which liave heretofore formed my stand- 

 ard of excellence among the fishes. I 

 have heard the fresh anchovy much ex- 

 tolled but I hope I shall be pardoned 

 for believing this quite as good. The 

 bones are so soft and fine that they form 

 no obstruction in eating this fish." 



The capelin (Mallotus villosus) is 

 very much like the eulachon, a little 

 larger in size, and in the males some 

 of the scales in rows, are produced, mak- 

 ing the whole surface of the fish woolly 

 to the touch. This is a northern fish, 

 nativcto Greenland, Siberia, and Alaska ; 

 and to the Indians and the p]skimos, 

 both in Greenland and Alaska, it is of 

 the greatest food value. It spawns in 

 the surf, and the falling tide leaves it 

 by the million on the islands of south- 

 ern Alaska. It lines the beaches in 

 summer as the eulachon farther south 

 does in the winter. But the eulachon 

 chooses the river mouths while the cap- 

 elin is satisfied with any sandy beach. 



The little icefish or whitebait (Sa- 

 langichthys) of the rivers of Japan 

 runs in the summer time in the streams. 

 It is a small, tender, translucent crea- 

 ture not three inches long, but it has 

 the salmon habits, and the delicate 

 flavor of the smelt. We suppose this to 

 be its life history, although the details 

 are not proved. It runs in the summer 

 and casts its spawn in the brooks. The 

 young fish slip down to the sea in the 

 fall, tail-foremost, "in the old salmon 

 fashion," and, as we believe, they re- 

 turn the next summer to spawn and 

 die. If this be true, it is an annual fish, 

 each generation renewed each year from 

 the eggs of the one before. 



Another little transparent "smelt- 

 ling" is the New Zealand whitebait 

 {Retro pinna) . This is now largely 

 canned as a food product, the flavor of 

 the preserved flesh being excellent. 



Of the true smelt (Osmerus), with 

 large loose scales and sharp teeth, Eu- 

 rope has one species (Osmerus eper- 

 lanus), and eastern America another 

 (Osmerus mordax). The North Pa- 

 cific is better supplied. One species 

 {Osmerus tlialeiclithys) is common in 

 California. A larger and finer one, the 

 surf smelt {Hypomesus pretiosus), 

 spawns in the surf northward, and the 

 pond smelt of Alaska {Hypomesus 

 inghaghitsch) spawns in brackish ponds 

 northward. The rainbow smelt {Os- 

 merus dentex) is common in the north, 

 and a species large and rare {Osmerus 

 alhatrossis) lives near the surface in 

 the open sea. Another, with feebler 

 teeth {Spirinchus verecundus), clings 

 to the streams of Korea. 



Xone of these is so reiiiarkable as 

 the fur seal smelt {Therohromus cal- 

 lorhini), in the open sea about the 

 Aleutian Islands. Of this dainty little 

 fish no naturalist has ever seen a per- 

 fect specimen, but the tender bones 

 have been taken by the thousand from 

 the stomachs of fur seals feeding out in 

 the sea. Dr. Frederic A. Lucas has 

 made a restoration of this animal as if 

 it were a fossil. 



Other fish of the smelt kind. Micro- 

 stoma and Nansenia, are found in the 

 deep seas of the Arctic, and still others, 

 called Argentina, in deep waters far- 

 ther south. The whole group seems to 

 be an offshoot of the trout and salmon 

 race, carrying the adipose fin, the 

 badge of all that race, as well as of the 

 wholly unrelated race of the catfishes. 

 This fin is probably a remnant of a 

 once continuous fin-fold which existed 

 before it was stiffened up with fin-rays. 



