190 1 ISHES. 



voracious. The structure and armature of tlie jaws are singularly vari- 

 ous. This great genus, 



Salmo, Lin., 

 Must be subdivided as follows : — 



The Salmons, properly so called, or rather the Trouts, 



Salmo, Cuv., 



Have a great portion of the edge of the upper jaw formed by the maxil- 

 laries; a range of pointed teeth in the maxillaries, intermaxillaries, pa- 

 latines and mandibularies, and a double one on the vomer, tongue, and 

 pharyngeals ; so that of all fishes it is the most completely furnished with 

 teeth. In the old male, the end of the lower jaw is bent up towards the 

 palate, where a cavity receives it when the mouth is closed. Every body 

 is familiar with their forms: their ventrals are opposite to the middle of 

 the first dorsal, and the adipose to the anal. There are ten branchial 

 rays, or thereabouts. There is one flexure in the long and narrow sto- 

 mach, which is followed by very numerous caeca: the natatory bladder ex- 

 tends from one end of the abdomen to the other, and communicates above 

 with the oesophagus. The body is usually spotted, and the flesh good. 

 These fishes ascend rivers to spawn, leaping over cataracts, &c., and are 

 even found in the brooks and small lakes of the highest mountains. 



S. salar, L., Bl. 20. (The Salmon). The largest species of the 

 genus, with red flesh and irregular brown spots, which soon disap- 

 pear in fresh water; the cartilaginous hook formed by the lower jaw 

 is inconsiderable even in the old male. From all the Arctic seas, 

 whence it enters the rivers in the spring. The value of this fishery 

 in all northern countries is well known. 



S. hamatus, Cuv. ; Bl. 98 ; Le Becard. A whitish ground, spot- 

 ted with red and black ; snout of the male narrowed into a point, 

 and the hook of the lower jaw much more strongly marked than in 

 the salar. Its teeth are stronger and its flesh red, but leaner, and 

 not so much esteemed. Taken at the mouth of rivers in Europe. 



S. S chief ermiiUeri, Bl. 133; La Truite de Mer. Less than the 

 salar, with longer and more slender teeth; flanks sprinkled with 

 little crescent-shaped spots on a silvery ground: flesh yellow. Num- 

 bers of this species are sent to Paris during the summer. 



S. hucho, L. ; the Hucho of the Danube and its tributaries, BL 

 100, and better, Meidinger, 45. Nearly as large as the salar, dif- 

 fering but little from the preceding in its spots, but has a more 

 pointed snout and much stronger teeth. 

 With respect to the remaining river Trouts, it may be said that they 

 are found in all the clear streams of Europe, and particularly among the 

 mountains, of very different colours and sizes, among which several natu- 

 ralists have thought they could detect various species, while others affirm 

 that these are mere varieties, resulting from age, nourishment, and espe- 

 cially from the waters in which they sojourn; this supposition, however, 

 is, I think, stretched beyond the bounds of probability. 



