CHAPTER XVI 



THE SMELT AND ITS ALLIES 



THE smelt is one of the class of fishes. 1 This class com- 

 prises vertebrates that breathe by means of gills and do 

 not use their appendages for walking. 



The smelts, which belong to the salmon family, are pre- 

 eminently inhabitants of the northern temperate zone, 

 since all but one of the ten genera occur only there.. They 

 are small marine fishes, and although a few are inhabitants 

 of the deep sea, most live near the shore, and in the spring 

 ascend rivers to spawn. Some of them have become cut 

 off from descending to the sea and live permanently, as 

 " land-locked " forms, in fresh water. Such " land-locked " 

 individuals are of smaller size than the marine ones. The 

 food of smelts, like that of other Salmonidse, is chiefly 

 animal, consisting of smaller fishes or insects, small crusta- 

 ceans, and mollusks. 



Smelt are of considerable economic importance, since 

 they share with other members of the salmon family a 

 delicately flavored flesh. Our Atlantic form, Osmerus 2 

 mordax? which ranges from Delaware Bay northward, is 

 caught most abundantly in Maine. The total Atlantic 



1 Keys to the principal orders of fishes and the six suborders of the 

 Teleostei will be found at the end of this Chapter, page 252. 



2 6<r/j,T)p6s, odorous ; the Greek name is the equivalent of the English 

 "smelt." 3 Biting. 



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