122 THE SMELT. 



parts of Scandinavia it is very common. Its limits to the 

 northward seem not very well ascertained, but I myself have 

 seen it in abundance in the lake Rada, in Wermeland, 

 situated in the 60 of latitude. This fish, according to 

 Ekstrom, is found in the eastern Skargard, and I almost 

 imagine in parts of the western also ; for although not 

 included in the reverend gentleman's catalogue of the fishes 

 of the Cattegat (1850), yet, from its being frequently cap- 

 tured by the Gothenburg fishermen, the inference is, that 

 it came from brackish, if not from salt water. Kroyer 

 speaks of it as common in the interior of Jutland ; also 

 in the fjords and on the coast. 



Swedish naturalists are of opinion there is only one species 

 of smelt in Scandinavia namely, the C. Eperlanus of Flem. 

 They consider it identical with the C. Eperlanus marinus of 

 Bloch,* and that the only difference between the two is in 

 regard to size. There were persons in my vicinity, how- 

 ever, who averred that there are two distinct species at the 

 least in the Wenern, and draw their conclusions not only 

 from those fish spawning at different times, but from the 

 great disparity in the size of the fish taking part in the 

 several leks. 



Be this as it may, the larger kinds, commonly from six to 

 eight inches in length, which keep in separate shoals by 

 themselves, go by the name of Slom ; and the smaller, from 

 two to four inches in length, which also keep in separate 

 shoals, by that of Nors.^ At times, however, it happens 

 that a scattered Slom is found amongst the latter, in which 



* PI. 28, fig. 1. 



f In consequence of its transparency, and of its bluish-white colour, this fish 

 was with us called the IMaor blue Nors; as also the Bla-nal, or blue-needle, 

 on account, no doubt, of its very slender form. 



