1896. | NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 185 
salmon of California is now reared with certainty in some parts 
of France and Germany. 
Ichthyologists now recognize about one hundred valid spe- 
cies in the salmon family, including the white fish, the zrconnu or 
nelma, at of Japan, lenok of Siberian rivers and lakes, the black- 
spotted river trout, the red-spotted charr and the Pacific and 
Atlantic salmon. 
In North America a species of trout is native in the Sierra 
Madre of Mexico, in Chihuahua, near the boundaries of Du- 
rango and Cinaloa. This is the most southerly species known. 
The range northward is coincident with the limits explored by 
man. In the United States the eastward distribution of black- 
spotted trout was checked by the plains of the middle region, 
which present conditions unfavorable to salmon life. The At- 
lantic ocean formed an impassable barrier to their westward 
migration and their want of adaptation to Arctic life prevented 
invasion of Atlantic streams from the north. 
The salmon family includes some small members, for example, 
the capelin, the oulachon, or candle fish, the smelts ; and such 
very large ones as the common whitefish, the inconnu, the lake 
trout, the Atlantic salmon and severai of the Pacific salmons. 
The genus of Pacific salmons, Oncorhynchus, was established 
by Dr. Suckley, in 1861,in the Annals of the Lyceum of Natural 
History of New York. It was based upon the Salmo Scoulert 
of Richardson, now known as the gorbuscha, or little humpback 
salmon, the smallest of the known species unless we regard 
Kennerly’s salmon as a distinct form, and nota variety of the 
red salmon dwarfed by landlocking. 
Five well marked species of Oncorhynchus are recognized at 
present and these inhabit the North Pacific Ocean, from which 
they ascend rivers at various periods of their lives, but chiefly 
when about to spawn. The identification of the species, fortu- 
nately, is not difficult and may be accomplished by reference 
merely to the number of scales in a longitudinal series, branch- 
iostegal rays, anal rays and gill-rakers—all external characters 
except the last. 
One of the salmon, the little humpback, has more than 200 
scales in the lateral line, and is at once distinguished thereby. 
Two of them have about 150 scales, the quinnat and the dog 
salmon, and they are readily separated by the number of the 
branchiostegals and anal rays. Two others have about 130 
scales and may be recognized easily by the great difference in 
the number of gill-rakers, the silver salmon having 23, while the 
red salmon has 35 or more. 
The red salmon can be identified immediately by means of its 
