SALMONIDJE. 121 



operculum with the suboperculum, and the inferior margin of the sub- 

 op erculum are oblique, forming a considerable angle with the axis of 

 the body of the fish. The posterior edge of the preoperculum rounded, 

 not sinuous, as in the Bull Trout. The teeth are more slender as 

 well as more numerous than in the Salmon or Bull Trout ; those on 

 the vomer extending along a great part of the length, and indenting 

 the tongue deeply between the two rows of teeth that are there placed, 

 one row along each side. The tail is less forked at the same age than 

 that of the Salmon, but becomes like it, square at the end, after the 

 third year. The size and surface of the tail also is much smaller 

 than that of the Salmon, from the shortness of the caudal rays. 



" The habits of this species are also very like those of the Sal- 

 mon, and the females are said to run up the rivers before the males. 

 Sir William Jardine says : ' In approaching the entrance of rivers, 

 or in seeking out, as it were, some one they preferred, shoals of 

 this fish may be seen coasting the shoals and headlands, leaping and 

 sporting in great numbers, from about one pound to three or four 

 pounds in weight ; and in some of the smaller bays the shoal could be 

 traced several times circling it, and apparently feeding. They enter 

 every river and rivulet in immense numbers, and when fishing for 

 Salmon, are annoying for their quantity. The food of those taken 

 with the rod in the estuaries appeared very indiscriminate ; occasion- 

 ally the remains of some small fish, which were too much digested 

 to be discriminated ; sometimes flies, beetles, or other insects, which 

 the wind or tide had carried out ; but the most general food seemed 

 to be the Talitris Locusta, or common sand-hopper, with which some 

 of their stomachs were completely crammed.' 



" The largest adult fish of this species I have ever seen," Mr. 

 Yarrel adds, " was in the possession of Mr. Groves, the fishmonger in 

 Bond-street. This specimen, which occurred in June, 1831 7 wasa 

 female, in very fine condition, and weighed seventeen pounds," 



Never having myself seen this fish in America, although perfectly 

 familiar with it in Great Britain, but having good reason for being 

 sure that' it existed in the great estuary of St. Lawrence, and in the 

 bays of Gaspe and Chaleurs, I wrote, so soon as I decided on the 

 preparation of this work, to a friend, Mr. Perley, in New Brunswick, 

 Her Majesty's emigration officer at St. John, knowing that I might 

 9 



