FISH OF ONTARIO. 61 



business of propagation, which is finished by November zoth. They prefer 

 shallow water close to the shore, with clean sand to spawn on, and during 

 the day they may be seen in pairs and small schools, poking along the 

 shores, but at night they come in thousands and keep up a constant loud 

 splashing and fluttering, very strange and weird on a calm night. Two 

 years ago I carefully counted the ova from a ripe fish two and a half pounds 

 in weight, and found there were 23,700, closely resembling Whitefish eggs 

 in appearance, but somewhat smaller. After spawning the fish are very 

 thin, lank, dull in colour, and quite unfit for human food." 



GENUS SALMO. (SALMON AND TROUT.) 



Body elongate, somewhat compressed ; mouth large, jaws, palatines 

 and tongue toothed, vomer flat, its shaft not depressed, a few teeth on the 

 chevron of the vomer, behind which is a somewhat irregular single or 

 double series of teeth, which in the migratory forms are usually deciduous 

 with age; scales large or small, one hundred and ten to two hundred in a 

 longitudinal series ; dorsal and anal fins short, usually of ten to twelve 

 rays each ; caudal fin truncate, emarginate or forked, its peduncle com- 

 paratively stout; sexual peculiarities variously developed, the males in 

 typical species with the jaws prolonged and the front teeth enlarged, the 

 lower jaw being hooked upward at the end and the upper jaw emarginate 

 or perforate. In the larger and migratory species these peculiarities are 

 most marked. Species of moderate or large size, black spotted. 



SUBGENUS SALMO. 



(70) Atlantic Salmon. 



(Salmo salar.) 



Body moderately elongate, symmetrical, not much compressed; head 

 rather low and comparatively small ; mouth moderate, the maxillary reach- 

 ing just past the eye; in the young the maxillary is proportionately shorter. 

 Scales comparatively large, rather larger posteriorly, silvery and well 

 imbricated in the young, becoming embedded in the adult males. 



Colour: In the adult the upper parts are brownish or grayish, the 

 sides silvery. Numerous x or x x shaped black spots on the upper half 

 of the body, side of the head and on the fins. Males in the breeding sea- 

 son have red blotches along the sides. In the young there are from ten to 

 twelve dark crossbars mingled with red blotches and black spots. D. , 1 1 

 divided rays and 3 rudiments; A., 9 divided rays and 3 rudiments. Scales, 

 23, 120, 21. 



In the early pioneer days the Atlantic Salmon was abundant in the 

 St. Lawrence and the Lake Ontario waters as far as Niagara Falls, which 

 formed an insurmountable obstacle to their further progress. They may 

 now, however, be considered as extinct in this Province. The destruction 



