GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 21 



Geographical Distribution. 



The salmon inhabits the North Atlantic and its tributary waters. In Europe its 

 stated occurrence is from the White Sea on the north to GaUcia, the most northern 

 province of Spain, in latitude 43° north. Day (1887, p. 141) wrote that 'This fish 

 ranges in the northern hemisphere between latitudes 45° and 75°, and examples have 

 been captured as high as 80° N. Lat. In the United States' report, it is stated to range 

 from the Polar regions to Cape Cod; but their presence in Hudson's Bay and the Arctic 

 coast of America, though probable, is still doubtful. It extends throughout the seas and 

 countries of Northern Europe, around the British Isles, and also the Atlantic coast of 

 France, but does not occur in the rivers which flow into the Mediterranean. 



'It is rare in the Orkneys and Zetland (Baikie), but is found in all suitable rivers of 

 England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, where it has not been destroyed by pollutions, 

 or obstructions render its ascent impracticable.' 



Dahl (1918, p. 1-2) says, 'On the Continent of Europe we find the salmon occurring 

 very scantily in Portugal, somewhat more abundant on the Atlantic coast of France, 

 and numerous along the coasts of the North Sea, the Skagerrack, the Kattegat and the 

 Baltic. It is further distributed along the coast of Norway, the Murman coast, and the 

 White Sea as far as the river Petchora, which flows into the sea a Uttle west of the en- 

 trance to the Kara Sea. Further east, in Siberia and in the Arctic islands, sahnon do not 

 occur. The salmon of Spitsbergen is really a sea char.' 



On the North American coast its northern limit has not been positively determined. 

 Its occurrence in Greenland rested for a long time on the authority of Fabricius (1780, 

 p. 170), who said that it was very rare in Greenland and never seen by him, but it was 

 said to occur in the southern bay Tunnudhorbik, and he had heard that it had been 

 seen in a bay in the neighborhood of the colony of Gothaab. 



Dr. Morten Porsild, whom the present writer met in Syracuse, N. Y., stated that there 

 was a regular fishery for 'salmon' at Amerdlog-Fjord Trading District of Holstenborg, 

 near the settlement of Sarfanguag, west Greenland, but that this salmon had not been 

 authoritatively identified. However, owing to its large size, large scales and other 

 characters it was regarded as Salmo salar. The Eskimos recognized it as different from 

 the common char. It was stated that it also occurred south of this locality but that only 

 one individual had ever been found as far north as Christianhaab. 



Later Dr. Porsild sent a dried skin of a specimen which in his letter dated June 14, 

 1924, he said was taken in the preceding fall at Sarfanguag, 66° 56' north latitude, 

 'the only place where a small number of this species are regularly caught.' The label 

 stated that the fish weighed 4 kilos (8.8+ lbs.) evidently on the authority of David 

 Olsen, presumably the collector. The skin was about 29 inches in total length and 

 about 283^^ inches to the extremity of the shortest caudal-ray. 



Jensen (1925, p. 20) writes, 'Two species of salmon are found in the Greenland rivers 

 and fjords, the large salmon proper {Salmo salar Linne), called by the natives KapisiUk 

 ('scale salmon'), and the smaller, fine-scaled char {Salmo alpinus Linne), which they 

 call Ekaluk. The former appears only in small numbers and at a few places (only known 



