SALMONIDA: 131 



ABDOMINAL 

 MALACOPTERYGI1. SALMONID^E. 



BACK'S GRAYLING. 



THE ARCTIC GRAYLING. 



Thymallus Signifer ; Richardson, Cuvier.Hewlook-powak; Esquimaux. Pois- 

 son Bleu ; .Can. Voy. 



THE exceeding beauty, and remarkably game qualities of this noble 

 fish, have induced me to give him a place in these pages, to which his 

 place of nativity hardly entitles him, as he is, I fear, to be found no 

 where southward of the 62nd parallel of latitude, between Mackenzie's 

 river and the Welcome. " Its highly appropriate Esquimaux title," 

 says Dr. Richardson, from whose fine work on the Fauna of Arctic 

 America J have borrowed both the matter of this paper and the cut 

 at the head of this page, " denoting ' wing-like fin,' alludes to its mag- 

 nificent dorsal ; and it was in reference to the same feature that I be- 

 stowed upon it the specific appellation of Signifer , l the standard- 

 bearer,' intending also to advert to the rank of my companion, Cap- 

 tain Back, then a midshipman, who took the first specimen we saw 

 with the artificial fly." 



I may remark here, that the European Grayling has the similar ap- 

 pellation of Vexillifer, or the " banner-bearer," in allusion to the same 

 feature, although the fin is greatly inferior in size to that of the fish 



