116 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VOL. XI 
IV. MALLOTUS VILLOSUS MULLER: 
“THE CAPELIN”’. 
Plate X, figs. 36-39. 
The run of the capelin is looked forward to each year by a great 
number of people, who consider them quite a delicacy. They visit 
Departure Bay about the first of October and remain a week or ten 
days. The individuals deposit the spawn or milt in the sand at the 
water’s edge, many of them being left high and dry as the wave recedes. 
If the surf is at all high they may be thrown up for some distance on 
the sand, particularly when they are chased by the arch enemy of all 
small fish, the dogfish. The eggs, I.o to 1.1 mm. in diameter, hatch 
out in the sand in about 30 days and the fry are carried out by the 
waves. 
From the scale point of view the capelin is of interest on account 
of the effect produced by the special scales that form longitudinal 
bands, two above the lateral line and two below it. In the males in 
particular these project so prominently that distinct ridges are formed 
and the fish appears quadrangular. The fish themselves are small, 
averaging about II cm. in length and weighing 11 grams. The scales 
are correspondingly small, although it cannot be laid down as a rule 
that small fish have small scales and large fish large scales. 
The ordinary scales are circular or oval, less than I mm. in diameter, 
with an elongated nucleus reaching almost across the scale. Around 
this nucleus are arranged from 8 to 12 rings. The scales that form the 
longitudinal bands vary much, but follow more or less two pronounced 
types. The one of these has an oval scale as a basis, from the margin 
of which extends a spike-like projection, in length about twice as great 
as the width of the scale. The other has not the circular base. It is 
about half as broad as the ordinary scale, but keeps pretty well to that 
size throughout except that it comes to a blunt point at its distal end. 
It varies in length and may be much longer than the other mentioned. 
In both of these the rings appear in practically the same number as in 
‘the regular scales, but they are not so complete or distinct as in the 
others, but simply pass from one side of the scale to the other. 
If the scale starts to grow in the capelin as soon as it does in other 
fish, and I see no reason why it should not, this would indicate that 
they are but one year old when they spawn and unless larger individuals 
are found elsewhere, that they perish after spawning. There is some 
indication of this in the fact that in the latter part of the run many of them 
are battered up and diseased, having somewhat the same appearance 
as the various species of Pacific salmon after they have spawned and 
are dying in the streams, 
