26o GAME FISH OF NORTH AMERICA. 



the absence of better game, they afford very satisfactory pastime 

 to the angler, and by reason of their abundance are not as much 

 valued as they should be. 



THE SALMONID^. 



Atlantic Salmon. — Salmo salar. — Linnaeus. 



This species is the representative salmon of Europe, the New 

 England coast, the St. Lawrence Basin, and the maritime Provinces 

 of the Dominion. Form oval, moderately elongated, with a head 

 and back nearly on the same line, inclining slightly in the middle 

 third of the body, and the greatest depth a little before the dorsal 

 fin ; head small and well proportioned, and equal to one-sixth 

 of length ; snout rather sharp ; jaws in young fish nearly equal, 

 but in old males the lower one longest and curving upward ; 

 a row of sharp teeth along both sides of each jaw, as well as 

 on the palatines, but those on the vomer confined to its ante- 

 rior extremity, and in some fish obsolete ; the eye is moderately 

 large, and is nearly circular, and is contained four times and a 

 half in the length of the side of the head, and once and a half in 

 advance of its anterior rim ; the nostrils are moderately large, and 

 situated toward the upper surface of the head, slightly nearer the 

 eye than snout. The opercle is elevated, and narrower above than 

 below. The pre-opercle on its posterior border is nearly vertical ; 

 the branchiostegals, or gill rays, usually number twelve, and occa- 

 sionally fourteen to sixteen ; dorsal, eleven ; adipose, rayless ; the 

 caudal, sixteen on each side ; anal, ten ; the ventrals ten or eleven, 

 and pectorals ten or eleven. 



Ray formula— ?>x, 12; P, 11 ; D, 11 ; o; V, 10: A, 10; C, 30. 

 The color is slaty blue on the back, darkish on the head, duller 

 and slightly silvery on the sides, and beneath, pearly silvery white. 

 There are numerous black spots above the lateral line that pass 

 from the upper convexity of the eye to the centre of the caudal fin. 

 The dorsal pectorals are dusky, and the anal white, and the ven- 

 trals white externally and dusky internally. The gill covers are 

 rounded posteriorly, and the tail is nearly square in the adult, but 

 furcated in the young ; the scales are regular in shape, delicate, 

 and sunk into the thick and fatty skin — the last feature a wise pro- 



