214 



PISCES. 



esteemed. They are naturally voracious. The structure and armature of the 

 jaws are singularly various. 



S.VLMH, Linn<i us. 



The Salmon, properly so called, or rather, the Trout, has a great portion of 

 the edge of the upper jaw formed by the maxillaries ; a 

 range of pointed teeth in the maxillaries, intermaxilla- 

 ries, palatines and raandibularies, and a double one on 

 the vomer, tongue, and pharyngeals ; so that of all fishes, 

 it is the most completely furnished with teeth. In the 

 old male the end of the lower jaw is bent up towards the 

 1 palate, where a cavity receives it when the mouth is 

 closed. The ventrals are opposite to the middle of the first dorsal, and th e 

 adipose to the anal. There are ten branchial rays or thereabout. The body is 

 usually spotted, and the flesh good. These fishes ascend rivers to spawn, 

 leaping over cataracts, &c., and are even found in the brooks and small lakes 

 of the highest mountains. 



S. solar, Lin. (The Salmon.) The largest species of the genus, with red 

 flesh and irregular brown spots, which soon disappear in fresh water; the 

 cartilaginous hook formed by the lower jaw is inconsiderable even in the old 

 male. Found in all the Arctic seas, whence it enters the rivers in the spring. 

 The value of this fishery in all northern countries is well known. 



Besides these Salmons and T routs which are found in Europe, several others 

 have been described by American naturalists, but they have not been suffi- 

 ciently compared with the former. 



In one of the various subdivisions of this great genus (Osmerus), we find 

 the Smelt. 



STERNOPTYX, Herman. 



A genus of small fishes with a very elevated and compressed body, supported 

 by the ribs ; their mouth is directed upwards ; their numerals 

 form a trenchant crest in front, terminated below by a small 

 spine, and the bones of the pelvis form another, also terminated 

 by a small spine in front of the ventrals. There is a series of 

 small fossula- along each side of the pelvic crest, which has 

 been considered as a festooned duplicature of the sternum, 

 whence the name of Sternoptyx. They are taken in the warm 

 parts of the Atlantic Ocean. 



FAMILY V. 

 CLUPEjE, 



Or Herring family, is easily recognised ; there is no adipose fin ; the upper jaw 

 is formed, as in the Trouts, by intermaxillaries without pedicles in the middle, 

 and by the maxillaries on the sides; the body is always covered with numerous 



