DENTITION OF THE SALMONID^. 7 



so arranged as if they occupied a ridge not sufficiently broad to 

 hold them symmetrically or side by side in pairs, hence alter- 

 nating. These characteristic teeth are called vomerine or 

 vomerian. I have occasionally called them middle palatal, for they 

 occupy the middle line of the palate : the bone supporting them 

 is presumed to be the vomer, and they form the key adopted by 

 many naturalists to the g'eneric distinctions of the salmonia of 

 every description. 



The figures given here represent the palate in the three natural 

 families of the salmonidae, namely 



The common trout adult. 

 The salmon trout 

 The true salmon 



But I caution the reader to remember, that this classification of 

 the salmonidse based on the teeth, is not sufficiently comprehen- 

 sive to include all ; for we shall find, that there are river trout 

 which have transverse teeth on the fore part of the vomer, even 

 in the adult state, and in this resembling the young sea trout 

 and salmon; for they, when young, have a double row of 

 vomerine teeth which they lose as they grow older. 



To render all this more distinct, I have caused to be repre- 

 sented here, the said vomer, with the vomerine teeth, as they 

 occur in the presumed adult, in the three natural families of 

 Salmonia. The question as to what is the dentition of the young 

 of these three natural families, opens up an inquiry which need 

 not be entered on here. It will find a fitting place in some 

 future chapter of this book, which the angler may perhaps 

 peruse when, wearied with angling, he reposes on some sunny 

 bank, before him the crystal stream full of trout, the stepping 

 stones over which have tripped many light hearts now cold and 

 pulseless ; the ruined abbey telling of a race and a worship now 

 dead and gone; the wooded bank, a vestige of that forest 

 through which roamed the ancient inhabitants of Caledonia; 

 shall we ascend further into the records of time ? Yes. Look 

 at that tiny fish in your hand, just escaped from below the gravel 

 into a world of waters ; observe it carefully ; study it deeply ; 

 mark its forms ; for they are vestiges of a former world. That 

 little fish, some two or three inches long, so strongly resembling 



