488 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATEKS. 



ble height. It is only necessary to compare him with other 

 fishes for judging why he is so fortunately conformed for 

 easy and rapid swimming. Fishermen are often ready at 

 seeing the fishes traverse the limpid stream, but the gray- 

 ling renders unavailing the exercise of the eyes. It has 

 passed like a shadow comme une ombre" EMILE BLANCH- 

 AKD, Member of the Institute, Professor of Natural History, 

 etc., Paris. 



The dress of the grayling, though extremely modest in 

 tone, being a shining steel-color, and its polished scales with 

 borders of yellowish tinge, are so exactly placed as to ap- 

 pear like mosaic; and the yellowish ends and black base, 

 with the top of head black, and the dorsal fin divided by 

 small transversal stripes of black, with its abdomen like 

 white satin, and white inferior fins shaded with yellow at 

 their base, renders this fish so peculiar that no one could 

 mistake it. The number of scales in a line from head to tail 

 vary from eighty-five to ninety along the lateral line, and 

 there are from seven to eight rows each side of said line. 

 The scales are detached with the utmost ease, when each 

 one is a gem of beauty. They are a trifle wider than long, 

 with angular borders gracefully festooned and regularly 

 concentrated. The number of rays of the dorsal fin exceeds 

 those of any other of the Salmonidce tribe, there being from 

 sixteen to eighteen. The tail is forked, long, and narrow. 

 The second dorsal is adipose, and the pectoral, anal, and ven- 

 tral fins are large for the size of the fish, and as transparent 

 as gauze. 



The grayling remains on its reddes, or spawning- beds, 

 during winter, and lays its eggs during the latter half of 

 February and the first half of March. The eggs are very 

 numerous, and they hatch in about a fortnight, being a short- 

 er time than is consumed by any other of the Salmonidce. 



The grayling is eminently a summer and autumn fish. It 

 is generally regarded as a good table fish, and " Father 

 Izaak " says that it should be scaled with the hands, without 



