FAMILY SALMONIDZ — OSMERUS. 243 
S. gairdneri. (Ip. p. 221.) Dorsal line nearly straight, unspotted. Ash grey on the sides; belly white. 
Length 2-3 feet. Columbia River. 
S canadensis. (Grif. Cuv. Vol. 10, p. 474, pl. 41.) White circular spots along the sides, with a red 
central dot. Pectoral, anal and caudal barred with black. Length ten inches. S¢. Lawrence. 
GENUS OSMERUS. Cuvier. 
Branchial membrane with only eight rays. Teeth on the jaws and tongue, very long and 
sharp ; two distinct rows on each palatine bone. Anal fin with more than fourteen rows. 
THE AMERICAN SMELT. 
OSMERUS VIRIDESCENS. 
PLATE XXXIX. FIG. 124. 
Smelt, Salmo eperlanus. Mircuiti, Report in part, p. 12. 
Salmo id., Smelt. Ip. Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. N. Y. Vol. 1, p. 435. 
Osmerus viridescens. Lrsurur, Jour. Acad. Nat. Se. Vol. 1, p. 230. 
The Smelt, O. viridescens. STORER, Mass. Report, p. 108. 
Characteristics. Greenish above ; silvery beneath, with a longitudinal band. Stomach with 
a few short ceca. Length 6 - 12 inches. 
Description. Body elongated, cylindrical, tapering gradually towards the head and tail. 
Scales large, oval, concentrically striate. Lateral line straight, not concurrent with the line 
of the back. Head rather more than one-fifth of the total length, sloping, smooth. Nostrils 
large, double, contiguous, nearly equidistant between the eyes and end of the snout. Dis- 
tance from the tip of the snout to the posterior margin of the opercle 2.5. Eyes large. 
Lower jaw longer than the upper, armed with strong, acute, recurved teeth; labial finely 
serrated. Tongue with two or three long teeth on each side, with a larger one in front near 
the tip; palatines with a row of smaller teeth. The vomer with asperities in front. 
The first dorsal commences at a point midway between the base of the caudal fin and the 
tip of the snout; its height equal to twice the length of its base; the two first rays simple, 
the first very short, the second longest, thence very gradually diminishing to the last. The 
adipose dorsal long and narrow, nearer the base of the caudal than to the last rays of the first 
dorsal, and over the posterior third of the anal. Fectorals pointed and fan-shaped ; its first ray 
simple, short and dark-colored. Ventrals broad, with multifid rays, arising under the first 
ray of the dorsal fin. Anal long, with subequal rays, the anterior being slightly longest. 
Caudal forked. The parietes of the abdomen silvery. Ovaries of a bright sulphur-yellow. 
Liver moderate. Stomach cylindrical, with a few short caca. (The absence of cecal ap- 
pendages in the European species has, by some European writers, been made a part of the 
generic phrase.) Air-bladder oblong, linear, slightly dilated at its anterior extremity, where 
it terminates in a short tube communicating with the esophagus. In the stomach, remains 
of shrimps and an atherine. : 
