FISHES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 65 


teeth on the vomer, palate and pterygoid bones and at the root of the tongue. Gill 
rakers long and slender. Branchiostegals 8. The dorsal is small, nearly median, 
over the ventrals. Anal moderately long. Scales large, thin, easily deciduous, in 
about seventy-five rows along the sides. Lateral line short, not extending much 
beyond the end of the pectoral. A few small pyloric czeca. The height of the body 
is nearly one-fifth of the total length without caudal and nearly equal to the length 
of the head. The eye is nearly one-fifth aslongasthe head. The pectoral equals the 
longest dorsal ray in length and also length of anal base. The ventral is one-half as 
long as the head. Longest anal ray not much more than one-half anal base. 
D. ii, 8; A. iii, 14; V. ii, 7. 
The upper parts are greenish; a broad silvery band along the sides; body and 
fins with numerous minute, dusky points. 
The smelt is known along our east coast from Labrador to Virginia. 
It probably extends still farther north, but the record of Mr. W. A. 
Stearns, published in the Proceedings of the National Museum for 1883, 
p. 124, fixes the most northern locality known at present. He found 
the smelt common in August in shoal water off the wharves of Cape 
Britain. In Pennsylvania the fish is common in the spring in the Dela- 
ware and Schuylkill rivers. In numerous lakes of Maine, New Hamp- 
shire, and other New England states, the smelt is common, land-locked, 
and thrives as well as in the salt water. Its range has been widely ex- 
tended by artificial introduction, which is very easily effected by trans- 
porting the fertilized eggs from the small brooks in which the species 
spawns. The eggs are adhesive and attach themselves to stones, and 
their transportation is accomplished very readily. 
The smelt grows to a length of one foot. The average size as found 
in the markets is about seven inches. It enters the rivers for the pur- 
pose of spawning and is most abundant in the winter and early spring 
months. Spawning takes place in the Raritan river, N. J., in March. 
The eggs of the smelt have been artificially hatched by Mr. Ricardo, 
Fred. Mather and other fish culturists. The food of this species consists 
mainly of shrimps and other small crustaceans. 
The smelt is an excellent food fish and is also used for bait, and still 
~ more extensively as food for land-locked salmon, lake and brook trout and 
other important Sa/monoids, which are artificially reared in lakes. It 
has proved to be one of the best fishes for this purpose. Immense 
quantities of smelts are caught during the winter months in nets, seines 
and by hook and line. They are usually shipped to market in the 
frozen condition, packed in snow or crushed ice. The fish which have 
not been frozen, however, are more highly prized than any others. 
Famity COREGONID: (Tue Wuarre Fisues). 
Genus COREGONUS (Artep1) Liyyzus. 
The white fishes of Pennsylvania belong to four species, representing the four di- 
visions of the genus Coregonus. In two of the species the lower jaw is included 
within the upper; the mouth is small and the intermaxillary bone broad and 
more or less vertical in position. These two may be readily distinguished by the 
5 FIsHes 
