394 



AMERICAN FISHES. 



ABDOMINAL 

 MALACOPTERYGII. SALMONIDjfi. 



THE NORTH-WEST CAPELIN. 



Salmo (Mallotus?) Pacificus; Richardson. SUB-GENUS Mallotus; Cuvier? 



" ' The Indian name of this fish is ^Oulachan. It comes annually in 

 immense shoals into the Columbia, about the 23rd of February, but 

 ascends no higher than the Katpootl, a tributary which joins it about 

 sixty miles from its mouth. It keeps close to the bottom of the stream 

 in the day, and is caught only in the night. The instrument used in 

 its capture by the natives is a long stick armed with sharp points, 

 which is plunged into the midst of the shoal, and several are generally 

 transfixed by each stroke. It is the favorite food of the Sturgeon, 

 which enters the river at the same time, and never has a better flavor 

 than when it preys on this fish. The Oulachan spawns in the different 

 small streams which fall into the lower part of the Columbia. It is 

 much prized as an article of food by the natives, and arrives oppor- 

 tunely in the interval between the expenditure of their winter stock of 

 dry Salmon and the first appearance of the Quinnat in May.' This 

 fish is noticed by Lewis and Clarke in the following terms : l The 

 Anchovy, which the natives call Olthen, is so delicate a fish that it soon 

 becomes tainted, unless piekled or smoked ; the natives run a small 

 stick through the gills, and hang it to dry in the smoke of their lodges, 

 or kindle small fires under it ; it needs no previous preparation of gut- 

 ting, and will be cured in twenty-four hours ; the natives do not ap- 

 pear to be very scrupulous about eating it when a little foetid.' 



u i COLOR generally silvery white, passing on the back into a blackish 

 tinge. Large irregular, but generally oval spots of yellowish white and 

 blackish gray on the back. A bluish black spot over each orbit. Mar- 

 gins of lips black. Back of head grayish white. Minute black dots 

 on the silvery basis of the cheeks. FORM. Head small and pointed. 

 Large suborbital covering the greater part of the cheek. Opercule 

 terminating in a thin rounded angle. Mouth opening obliquely up- 

 wards, its fissure extending as far back as the anterior margin of the 



