176 SALMONID^. 



ation that the Salmon Smalt is an immature fish, which runs 

 down the rivers he inhabits in the spring, and returns in the 

 autumn a Grilse, as has been related above ; whereas the Smelt 

 enters the rivers perfectly mature, and full of spawn, running 

 up for the purpose of depositing its ova so soon as, or even 

 before, the streams are clear from ice, and returning a spent 

 fish in the autumn. It is a sub-genus of the genus Salmo, true, 

 — but as distinct from it as a roebuck from an elk. 



My second object in devoting a page or two to this little fish, 

 is to call the attention of scientific men to the fact that there 

 are, in the United States, two distinct species of this fish : the 

 Common American Smelt [Osmerus Viridescens) , — which differs 

 from the European Smelt [Osmerus Eperlamis) in many parti- 

 culars, — and a much smaller and more highly-scented, as well as 

 highly-flavoured, variety, which I believe to be identical with 

 the European fish. 



Some years since, before I thought of publishing on this 

 subject, I compared this smaller fish with the Eastern Smelt 

 [Osmerus Viridescens) of Lesueur, and, although I have unfor- 

 tunately lost the notes which I made at that time, and forgot 

 the specific difi'erences, except that the ventral fin in the smaller 

 fish was considerably farther forward than in the common fish, 

 I am certain of the fact that there were farther differences in the 

 number of the fin-rays, apart from the extraordinary difference 

 in size, which could not fail to strike the least observant. 



This smaller fish, so far as I know or have heard, is never 

 taken but in the Passaic and Raritan Rivers; and in neither of 

 these is the large Smelt, common alike to the Eastern and the 

 Southern States, ever seen. I have observed and examined 



