ORDER II. BONY FISHES. MALACOPTERYGIT ABDOMINALES. 181 
Prvevopes. — The body is covered with a naked skin; no lateral arma- 
ture; jaws, and often palatine bones, furnished with teeth, but there is no 
band of teeth on the vomer parallel to that on the upper jaw. The form 
of the head varies very much, as well as the number of its barbules. There 
are several foreign species. 
P. Nebulosus. — The Horned Pout. This is a well-known species in all 
of our rivers and ponds. It is often eaten, and is much esteemed by many, 
while others throw it away, not liking its appearance. 
Satmonipe. Mourth Family of the Malacopterygit Abdominales. 
The genera and sub-genera of this family are too numerous to be recorded 
here. I shall confine my observations, therefore, to the most valuable of 
them. 
Satmo. — The Salmons have the head smooth; two dorsal fins, the first 
supported by rays, the second fleshy, and without rays; teeth on the vomer, 
both palatine bones, and all the maxillary bones. 
S. Salar. — The Common Salmon, which was known to the Romans, but 
not to the Greeks, is distinguished from other fish by having two dorsal fins, 
of which the hindermost is fleshy, and without rays; they have teeth both 
in the jaws and the tongue, and the body is covered with round and minutely 
striated scales. Gray is the color of the back and sides, sometimes spotted 
with black, and sometimes plain. The belly is silvery. It is entirely a north- 
ern fish, being found both at Greenland, Kamtschatka, and in the northern 
parts of North America, but never so far south as the Mediterranean. Salmon 
are now scarce in all our rivers south of the Merrimac. In the Connecticut, 
they were once so abundant as to be less esteemed than shad; and the fish- 
ermen used to require their purchasers to take some salmon with their shad. 
Within the memory of persons living, they were taken in plenty even as far 
up as Vermont. The Indians used to catch a great many of them as they 
were ascending Bellows Falls. It is supposed that the locks, dams, and 
canals, constructed in the river, have driven this valuable fish away. About 
the latter end of the year, the salmon begin to press up the rivers, even for 
hundreds of miles, to deposit their spawn, which lies buried in the sand till 
spring, if not disturbed by the floods, or devoured by other fishes. In this 
peregrination it is not to be stopped even by cataracts. About March the 
young ones begin to appear; and, about the beginning of May, the river is 
full of the salmon fry, which are then four or five inches long, and gradu- 
ally proceed to the sea. About the middle of June, the earliest fry begin 
to return again from the sea, and are then from twelve to fourteen inches 
Jong. Rapid and stony rivers, where the water is free from mud, are the 
favorite places of most of the salmon tribe, the whole of which is supposed 
"NO. XVI. 7H 
