THE SALMON. 151 



soon become quite extinct, so many enemies and op- 

 posing influences have they. The fishes of this family 

 are beautiful in shape and colour; they are covered with 

 scales, the back being dark sea-green, and the belly and 

 sides silvery-white, with black spots on the head, and 

 irregular brown marks on the sides. These colours are 

 only found on the full-grown Salmon. They have two 

 dorsals, the first with soft rays, followed by a second 

 which is smaller, formed without rays and adipose, 

 or with a layer of fat under the skin. The body is 

 long, the muzzle roundish, more so in the male fish. 

 The upper jaw has a cavity into which the lower jaw 

 fits when the mouth is closed. The young Salmon 

 changes its colour several times before it is the full- 

 grown Salmon. The young Salmon is grayish, striped 

 with black. At the end of a year it has acquired a 

 metallic hue. The other parts, according to Mr. 

 Blanchard, are of a dazzling steel-blue ; eight or ten 

 large spots cover it as with a silvery mantle on the 

 sides, between these spots a reddish or rather brightish- 

 rusty iron-colour prevails ; a black spot is usually ob-. 

 servable in the middle of the operculum. The belly 

 is of a fine diaphanous blue in the parr, the name by 

 which the Salmon of a year old is known. The infant 

 fry, of about half an inch in length, are very unlike 

 what they afterwards become. After a time the parr 

 becomes a smolt, and has a covering of silvery scales. 

 While they are in the state of parr, they are unable 

 to bear the salt water, but when they become smolts, 

 they agree well with the salt water and increase rapidly 

 in size. For a time they seem to be lost in the ocean, 

 but at length they return to their birthplace, and 



