ZOOLOGY. 325 



2. SALMO TAUCIDENS, Rich. 



'H^ealc-tootlied Salmou* 



Sal?no paucidens, Rich. F. B. A. Ill, 222. — Herbert, Sup. to Fish If Fishing, &c., 1850, 36. 

 Sp. Ch. — This species, described by Richardson from tlie notes of Dr. Gairdner, and from some fragments received, I have not yet 

 been able to obtain. The epecific characters deduced from Richardson's description are as follows: Dorsal outliae nearly straight. 

 Baclt of head and body bluish gray. Belly white. Tail and fuis unspoltal. Caudal forked. Teeth sparingly scattered, and 

 feeble. ^ 



They reach, according to Dr. Gairdner, an average weight of three or four pounds, and ascend 

 the Columbia in the spring, in companj^ with the ^S*. quinnat and S. Gairdneri. If not the 

 young of some other species ah-cady known, it must certainly be considered as distinct. Sir 

 John Richardson, in F. B. A, Part III, p. 223, seems to think it the same as the ^ ^ red-char" ot 

 Lewis & Clark, and supposes that the S. Scouleri ma}' have also been thus named by those 

 travellers. It is very difficult to determine what species they really alluded to. They say: 

 "The red-char are rather broader in proportion to their length than the common salmon; the 

 scales are also imbricated, but rather larger; the rostrum exceeds the under jaw more, and the 

 teeth are neither so large nor so numerous as those of the salmon. Some of them are almost 

 entirely red on the hdly and sides; others are much more white than the salmon; and none of 

 them are variegated with the dark spots which mark the bodj^ of the other." 



As to the red color on the sides and belly, mentioned by those explorers, it is a mark of but 

 little specific importance, as the females, and occasionally the males of the S. quinnat, S. 

 Scouleri, S. canis, and probably those of several other species, become red, and sometimes 

 purplish, after remaining some time in fresh water. Indeed, it is one of the first indications of 

 the declining powers of the fish; and instead of being an evidence of high vital action, seems 

 to be scorbutic in its character, forcibly reminding one of the redness caused in the human 

 subject by the peculiar cachexia which produces scurvy and purpura haemorrhagica. 



It seems, from this, not unlikely that the term "red-char" was applied to several species 

 when in bad condition. 



No Oregon salmon with which I am familiar agrees in the characteristics given of S. paucidens. 

 There is, however, a kind of salmon which runs up the small rivers below the "Great Falls" 

 (Dalles,) that is said to be very bright and silvery, and called, in consequence, the ^'tchite 

 salmon" by the settlers, and a river which they ascend in great numbers by preference is 

 named, from that circumstance, the White-salmon river. It is possible that this " zf/itie sa^niow" 

 may be the silvery -white salmon-trout of Lewis and Clark, and perhaps identical with Dr. 

 Gairdner's weak-toothed salmon. — (See beyond). Lewis and Clark say : t ' ' Of the salmon-trout 

 we observe two species difi'ering only in color. They are seldom more than two feet in length, 

 and much narroiver in proportion than the salmon or red-char. The jaws are nearly of the same 

 length, and are furnished with a single series of small subulate straight teeth, not so long nor 

 so large as those of the salmon. * * * * One of the kinds, of a silvery white color an the 

 belly and sides, and a bluish light-brown on the back and head, is found heloiu the Great Falls, 

 and associates with the red-char in little rivulets and creeks. It is about two feet eight inches 

 long, and weighs ten pounds." * * * "The white kind found below the falls is in excellent 

 order wlien tlte salmon are out of season and unfit for use.' ' 



" The young of most species of salmon have the tails forked. In the present case the small teeth, forked tails, and small 

 size, may indicate the young of a species already known, or of which the adult is yet to be described, 

 t See quotation in Rich. F. B. A., Part 3, p. 163. — The italics are our own. 



