8 , SALMON AND TEOUT IN ALASKA. 



no. 2, a fish 2 inches in length and up to 3 inches; no. 3, a fish 3 inches in length and 

 up to 4 inches, etc. 



Ycarlings=fish that are 1 year old, but less than 2 years old from the date of hatching. 

 These may be designated no. 1, no. 2, no. 3, etc., after the plan described for finger- 

 lings. 



These definitions have been generally adopted in government and 

 state reports and are the ones used in this paper. The use of the 

 French term "alevin" instead of "fry" for the larval stage of sal- 

 monids has been abandoned here for the reason that the French 

 writers do not restrict the term to that period of development of the 

 young fish. Though the use of "alevia" has had the support of such 

 authorities as Francis Day'*, Livingston Stone*, and Cloudsley 

 Rutter'^, it seems unnecessary, if not even absurd, to continue the use 

 of a foreign word and give it a meaning not recognized in the language 

 from which it is drawn, more especially as even the writers mentioned 

 above did not make a strict application of the term. 



Some French writers'* have apparently endeavored to make a 

 technical use of the terms "alevin" and "fretin," but their example 

 has not been followed by later writers, and the word alevin seems to 

 be used now to designate the young of the salmon in the most general 

 way.* In the same manner the German word "Brut," or "Jung- 

 brut," has about the same latitude as has been given hitherto to the 

 word " fry" in English, nor does the German term"Setzlinge" admit 

 of strict application.^ 



The words "larva" and "larval" have been used by many writers 

 in descriptions of the young salmonids. Others would restrict these 

 terms to fishes exhibiting a greater change in the stages, such as the 

 eels and the ladj-fish. As in neither case is there a complete meta- 

 morphosis, this limitation is scarcely tenable. The terms, however, 

 are not yet current among fish culturists. 



The great diversity of size among species and among individuals of 

 a given species at the time of hatching, as well as the intimate 

 dependence of fish growth upon environment, in some cases may 



a Francis Day, British and Irish Salmonidae, p. 43, 44, and 82, 1887. 



^Livingston Stone, Domesticated trout, p. 151, 6th ed., 1901. 



c Cloudsley Rutter, Natural history of the quinnat salmon, Bulletin U. S. Fish 

 Commission, vol. xxii, 1902, p. 69 and 72. 



d Larbaletrier, Albert, Traite-Manuel de Pisciculture d'eau douce, p. 220, 1886: 

 "Alevins. — Les jeunes poissons venant d'eclore portent le nom d'alevins. Toutefois, 

 il est a remarquer que cette denomination s'applique surtout aux jeunes dessaumons, 

 truites et ombres-chevalier, tant qu'ils n'ont pas resorbe la vesicule; aprfes, ils consti- 

 tuent \e fretin; pour les carpes et autres cyprins, quelques auteurs pref^rent 1 'appella- 

 tion defeuilles. Cette distinction ne nous semble pas necessaire; d'ailleurs, nous ne 

 sommes pas seul a penser de la sorte, car le nom d 'alevin tend a se generaliser." 



e C. Raveret-Wattel, La Pisciculture, vol. ii, 1907, p. 185. 



/Paul Vogel, Ausfuhrliches Lehrbuch der Teichwirthschaft, p. 334, 341, 347, 349, 

 1898. 



